


The Golden Room

by Achariyth



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Gen, Pulp, Treasure Hunting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2018-12-18 01:14:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 40,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11863575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Achariyth/pseuds/Achariyth
Summary: In the wake of Kaguya's storybook wedding, rumors of hidden riches on Youkai Mountain have swept treasure hunters into a frenzy--including Marisa's father. His search ended in disaster on the mountain. Now it's up to Marisa to find the legendary Golden Room and prevent an even greater disaster from creeping, spider-like, throughout Gensokyo.





	1. Prologue: The Star Lotus

**Author's Note:**

> The Golden Room follows All's Fair in Love and Thievery, "A Book for Her Pillow," and The Adventures of Master Kaku and Blessed Bell.

_**Underneath Youkai Mountain, January, 2009** _

Constant jets of water crashed over the deck of the palanquin ship  _Star Lotus_ , flinging spray into Nue Houjuu's eyes. Sputtering, the cryptid youkai staggered away from the railing, shivering as the wintry underground air wicked away all warmth from her bare skin. As the deck beneath her feet shuddered, she pointed up towards the cavern's ceiling, toward the sole sunbeam pouring into the rocky hold. "Get this crate into the air."

Behind her, standing in the shadow of the  _Star Lotus_ ' mainmast, Captain Minamitsu Murasa pushed hard against the ship's tiller. As the geyser buffeted the ship, the tiller groaned under the ghostly captain's weight. "We're still aground." The geyser fell silent. As the  _Star Lotus_  tipped forward, she shouted, "Hold on!"

Nue leapt into the air, her chimera wings keeping her aloft as the prow of the  _Star Lotus_ dropped three meters, crashing against the stone floor. Below her, Ichirin Kumoi, a veiled Buddhist nun, clung to the mainmast. As the ship's wooden walls ground against the rocks, a pink cloud surrounded the nun and lifted her into the air, keeping her from falling. Suppressing a shiver, Nue touched down on the deck and wrung out the hem of her black skirt. "Is everyone alright?"

Captain Murasa swung on the tiller, hissing an unbroken stream of paint-curdling curses, much to Ichirin's pink-faced astonishment. For a thousand years, she had stood watch on the foundered ship while it was sealed underground with its passengers, until, minutes earlier, tremors and aftershocks had unleashed a maelstrom inside the cavern. At the first rumble, Captain Murasa had leapt for the helm and steered a course towards escape, but the waves always dragged the  _Star Lotus_  further into the Earth. "Where's Nazrin?"

"Hiding belowdecks," Ichirin called out as the cloud set her down onto the  _Star Lotus_. "The Avatara's down there as well."

"Figures. We could use some divine help right now."

"She told me that everything would be alright." As Ichirin's hands flashed through a series of wards against disaster, a pink cloud rose into the air behind her. For a moment, a man's scowl could be seen in the mist.

"That's easy for Shou to say; she's not doing any of the work." Captain Murasa stumbled as the ship rolled beneath her and cussed a blue streak while she found her footing. "Don't just stand there-"

Nue's eyes glazed over as the ghost barked a series of orders that, while in Japanese, sounded like a completely different language. What did it mean to do something handsomely? And why did the same rope get thirteen different names depending on where it was tied off on the ship? Sometimes Nue thought that Captain Murasa's endless naming was nothing but dark conspiracy against those smart enough to avoid the water. However, Ichirin seemed to understand the captain's opaque commands. With slow deliberate steps through the constant spray, the nun crept away from the mainmast and hauled on one of the many seemingly interchangeable ropes.

"Get the other one, Unzan," Ichirin said. The pink cloud formed two giant hands and seized hold of another line on the opposite side of the ship.

A deafening rumble built underneath the  _Star Lotus_. As the cavern writhed, Nue dove towards the staysail mast at the bow of the ship. The ship lurched skyward, slamming into Nue's chin, but the dazed cryptid managed to wrap her arms and legs around the mast

For what seemed like an eternity, Nue's world was lost to water. The fountain tore at her wings, at her clothes, and at her hands and feet, prying her millimeter by millimeter away from the safety of the ship, until, without warning, the grasping waters fled back into the cavern's nether recesses. The  _Star Lotus_  fell forward, dashing its hull against the rock floor.

Nue banged her head on the mast, tasting blood. Coughing, the cryptid girl spat what she hoped was water and wiped her bangs out of her eyes. Slowly, the stars at the edges of her vision faded.

Captain Murasa's incessant profanity resounded in the vast chamber, rising in volume until the rock walls shook with one final bellowed curse. As the echoes faded, she said, "We have to hurry. We don't know how many more chances we'll get to escape." The wooden ship protested with a chorus of creaking planks. "Or how much more  _Star Lotus_  can take."

The ghost thought for a moment. "Ichirin and Unzan, tighten up the stays." Before Nue's eyes glazed over, Captain Murasa barked, "Nue, get over here."

The dark-haired cryptid flew over and grunted as Captain Murasa shoved the tiller into her chest. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

"Nothing, I hope. Keep it steady, and if you do need to steer, turn the tiller towards trouble."

Nue first pushed then pulled agaist the tiller. The giant lever moved slowly, unresponsive to anything besides massive exertion. "Where are you going?"

Captain Murasa untied a rope line and walked towards the stern. "Someone's got to unfoul the rudder." She dove off the side, dangling from the line.

Nue waited with her hands on the wooden tiller, straining for any call from the ghostly captain, but all she could hear was stretching rope, settling boards, and the occasional grunt as Ichirin wrestled with the ship's lines.

The cavern shuddered, showering dirt across the deck of the  _Star Lotus_. Nue hid her face in the crook of her arm, shielding her eyes from the falling grit. After the cascade relented, the tiller bucked out of her grasp. Hissing, the cryptid girl wrapped her arms around the steering rod and wrestled to the tiller while it lashed about the deck.

"Hold that poxy tiller  _still_ ," Captain Murasa roared. The tiller shook as the ghost kicked the rudder.

Nue planted her feet and braced herself on the deck. The steering rod still jumped in her arms after every kick, but Nue now had the tiller under control. She grimaced as a trickle of grit fell down the back of her dress. "Any idea what's causing those tremors?"

Ichirin tied off her line to a belaying pin. "I just hope it doesn't stop before we can get out of here."

Nue looked up at the skylight. "We could just fly out of here ourselves." She shrugged her shoulders and spread her wings.

"Perish the thought." Ichirin stepped away from Nue, warding off evil with a sign. "I would never abandon the abbess."

The tiller jerked hard, knocking Nue over. She slid headfirst down the polished deck and smacked into the railing.

"Pull me up!" Captain Murasa shouted.

Ichirin pointed to a rope draped over the stern. Unzan grabbed hold of the line and drew it hand over hand into the ship. A petite ghost in a sailor dress dangled below the great cloud spirit.

Captain Murasa dropped to the deck. "That's fixed now, but we're listing because we're overburdened. We would have settled evenly on the keel if Nazrin hadn't hoarded more of her toys." She scowled at Nue. "Stop dawdling."

As the captain ran belowdecks, Nue found her footing and brushed clumps of wet grit from her black dress. With ginger steps, the cryptid girl took her place at the ship's helm.

"Oh, dear," Ichirin muttered.

Nue looked over at the nun and groaned. Unzan turned into a diffuse wisp, his focus drawn away by some distant image only he could see. As the only member of the crew without the gift of augury, Nue couldn't help but grow jealous. However, while Ichirin's ever present companion had the strongest foresight, Nue hated to lose the ship's muscle to visions when his strength was needed more.

Unzan coalesced until he was a solid mountain hovering above Ichirin, his face and flowing beard seemingly hewn from the granite that surrounded the ship. Ichirin looked up at him and paled. Although the cloud spirit's stern expressing never wavered, the nun nodded in silent conversation and drew in a deep breath.

"Tie yourself to the ship." Ichirin dashed towards the mainmast and wound rope around her waist. After tying a knot over her hip, she looped the free end around the mast in a complicated tangle and pulled the rope tight. Only then did the nun toss a coil of rope to Nue.

The dark-haired girl lashed herself to the tiller, taking care not to wrap the rope through her wings. She hoped her knotwork would hold; unlike Ichirin, Nue had few chances to practice since she spent most of her time avoiding Captain Murasa's work details. It would have to hold; Unzan only manifested so strongly for immediate threats.

The great cavern pealed like a tocsin bell, shedding streams of earth in its convulsions. Nue covered her head and clenched her eyes shut as the sand fell and the  _Sea Lotus_  heaved. The stone floor cracked and buckled, flinging arrowhead shards into the air. Ichirin screamed sutras as the rocks flew past; Nue just screamed.

The mountain fell silent exhausted by its tremors. Underneath the  _Star Lotus_ , rock snapped and fractured. Water fountained in thin streams through the fissures, sloughing away sheets of the stone floor. Pale and trembling, Nue clung to the ship's tiller, frantically trying to remember what little Captain Murasa had told her on how to steer.

Captain Murasa staggered onto the deck. "I don't know what sort of ballast that packrat found down here, but Nazrin's filled an entire cabin with it." She slid down the slanted deck and leaned over the railing.

With a loud report, the ground beneath the  _Star Lotus_  gave way. Icy spray filled the air as the palanquin ship slid backwards, deeper into the cavern's maw.

"I don't care what Nazrin found, get it off my ship." Captain Murasa scrambled for the tiller.

Unzan glanced over to Ichirin, who nodded. The cloud spirit floated over the side of the ship. With stern disapproval, he reared back fists as large as tree trunks and battered the hull. The wooden walls splintered with each blow.

Captain Murasa gaped at the cloud spirit. For the first time since Nue had met the phantom, Minamitsu's vast salty vocabulary had failed her. Finally, her mouth caught up with her mind. "I meant over the side, not through it!"

"Is he trying to sink us?" Nue shouted.

"We're sunk if you stop him," Ichirin answered.

Unzan battered the hull in silence, unaware of the phantom's shout. Wood splintered, then shattered underneath titanic blows until he bored a fist-sized hole through the hull. As jets of water hissed around him, Unzan reached in and pried out broken beams until four men abreast could have marched through the gap. Casting the last ruined beam down into the bubbling muck below, the cloud spirit plunged inside the  _Star Lotus_.

As the deck trembled beneath her feet and the clamor of splintering wood rose, Nue pursed her lips and cast her eyes to the sinkhole above. Maybe Nazrin had some room in whatever bolthole she was hiding in. But before the chimerical cryptid could tear away the knots binding her to the ship, a wall of water thrust itself high into the air, higher than the masthead, before sweeping over the  _Star Lotus_. Nue's lungs burned as the wave tossed her hither and yon like a rat in a terrier's jaws.

The last of the wave drained through the ship's scuppers. Heaving up a draught of sulfurous spring water, Nue groped for the knife at her waist. The well-honed edge sliced through the rope without a tug of resistance. Looking skyward to the sinkhole, she spread her wings wide.

"Don't abandon the abbess," Ichirin hollered. The water had torn the nun's veil from her head, revealing her long blue hair.

Nue closed her eyes and drew her wings tight against her body.

"How much water have we taken on?" Captain Murasa leaned over the side railing and watched water drain from  _Star Lotus's_  holed hull. Thunder rumbled belowdecks, and one last gush poured out of the palanquin ship's side.

"Oh, my," Ichirin said in a breathless whisper. Her eyes grew distant and unfocused, enraptured by an unseen vision.

Nue shook her head. It was just like Ichirin to have her head so caught up in the heavenlies that she was no earthly good. She opened her eyes and froze.

Unzan floated free of the  _Star Lotus_. Lightening crackled across the cloud spirit's granite face as he struggled to free a giant crate from the ship's hold. Gold gleamed along its surface. Some unknown metalsmith had cast the box out of pure golf, taking special care to etch in each knot and swirl needed to mimic wood. No wonder Unzan struggled with the heavy burden. But it couldn't be completely made of gold; all the gold in the Heian court would not have been enough to cover the walls in gold leaf. Despite herself, Nue drifted over to the railing.

Unzan strained as he pulled on the treasure room, the clouds that made up his arms bulging with effort. The golden box tipped out the  _Star Lotus's_  open hold and fell free, driving the cloud spirit toward the slurry of muck and burbling spray that made the cavern's floor. A golden door at the upmost end swung open.

Sunlight from the open sinkhole above reflected inside the golden room, illuminating silver filigree wall silks and an exquisite table setting cast in purest gold. Nue's eyes grew wider, even as she blinked away the glare. On top of the burnished table, a jeweled pagoda lamp burned. Before Nue could identify the gems that studded the pagoda, the room's door slammed shut.

"Nazrin's got some explaining to do." Nue blinked away the misty spray.

"Damn straight," Captain Murasa growled. As the golden room sank out of sight, the ghost stepped away from the railing. "I told her that she could have a cupboard for her curios, not an entire becalmed cabin. Certainly not enough to sink the ship."

"You're just mad that she didn't cut you in on the action."

"I've drowned once; I'm not exactly eager to repeat the experience." The phantom of the fathoms spun towards Nue. "Which we're all going to do with that hole in the hull."

"Unzan will protect us." Ichirin wrung out her veil. "He can-"

The cavern exploded with water, throwing the unburdened  _Star Lotus_  skyward. Nue stared open-mouthed at the wall of water, then shrieked as she looked upwards. The cavern's ceiling rushed towards the ship, stalactite fingers reaching out to smash it to splinters.

"Get over here!" Captain Murasa pulled hard on the tiller. The ship rode the crest of the mammoth geyser, heeling towards the mouth of the sinkhole and the blue sky above. Nue rushed over and added her strength to the ghost's. The  _Star Lotus_  turned tighter, knifing a slow spiral around the surging column of water.

The ship banked too far, and thick white spray across the deck. While Nue wiped the water from her eyes, the  _Star Lotus_  rolled upright. The tiller jerked in the chimera girl's hands.

"Stop fighting me," Captain Murasa shouted over the roar of the waters.

Nue blinked the last blurs away. The skylight was now to the right of the prow, and, along with the rocks above, closer than ever. Blanching, she pushed on the steering lever. The palanquin ship tacked back towards the sinkhole, but the cavern ceiling loomed ever closer.

"Hold on." Ichirin slid down the mast and tucked herself into a ball.

As the rock ceiling hurtled towards her, Nue shrieked like a buzzard and heaved against the tiller. The  _Star Lotus_  listed to its side and scraped through the sinkhole with a shower of splinters as the geyser hurled it free of the bowels of Youkai Mountain and into the air. Walls of sulfurous spray surrounded the ship as it flew toward the clouds, buoyed aloft by the water.

"To the sails!" Captain Murasa bellowed. The phantom dropped the tiller and raced towards the mast. Ichirin didn't pause to cut herself free before hauling on the lines. As the ship's captain pulled with her on the ropes, a great sheet of clean white cloth unfurled its way up the mast.

The geyser fell away.  _Star Lotus_  dropped toward the rocks below. Before Nue could find breath to scream again, the mainsail swelled with captured winds. The ship shuddered once before it soared above the mountain.

Captain Murasa shoved the lines into Ichirin's hands and rushed towards the staysail mast. "Trim the sail," she called over her shoulder.

As the adrenaline left her N,ue fell to her knees, spent. She laughed uncontrollably and spread her wings out wide to dry, basking in the sun's warmth for the first time in centuries.

A shadow passed over her. "No loafing now, we're not done yet," Captain Murasa said.

Nue coughed and swayed to her feet. "That shouldn't have worked." She pointed to the billowing sail.

"Aye, but you know how the Honored Myouren Hijiri used cloth to make his bowl fly? His sister, our abbess, knows the secret to its making."

"So now what?"

"We set down, and while I draw upon the arts of carpentry and chandlery to repair my ship, you and the Avatara wake the abbess." The captain's voice grew stern. "Now stop hugging the tiller and fetch Unzan from belowdecks."

Nue rolled her eyes, but she crept towards the stern, savoring every sunbeam she passed through. Before she reached the stairwell, two grey mouse ears bobbed up from the hold.

Captain Murasa roared, "Ah, the packrat that foundered my ship finally scurries into the light. I have words for you-"

"It's gone!" Nazrin squeaked, waving a hand above her head. Nue reached down and pulled the mouse youkai onto the deck. "The Jeweled Pagoda is gone. We must go back, for the abbess's sake."

"You mean for your own, once the Avatara finds out," Nue whispered. She looked over the railing to the mountain prison, now holding a room turned to solid gold, shrinking in the distance. Glaring at her companion, who cowered below while she had been blasted by sand and spray, a seed of mischief sprouted in Nue's mind, soon to bear fruit as a full-fledged incident for two shrine maidens and a witch to resolve.


	2. The Hakurei Shrine Maiden

A cock crowed three times, greeting the rosy dawn as it spread across Gensokyo's sky. The Witching Hour was now over.

A shadowed figure stormed out of the dark forest, little taller than the fairy she frog marched before her. Carefully skirting around the Hakurei shrine's holy  _torii_  gate, the silhouette crossed the courtyard, stopping in front of the storehouse. Rearing back her boot, she kicked in the door.

"Reimu, get your lazy bones out here," Marisa Kirisame hollered. A scowl darkened her normally cheerful visage. Whether her glower was provoked by the witch's hat missing from her blond head, the star-spangled fairy in her grasp, or the shapeless pink dress around her waist, it was not prudent to ask. A carrot pendant bounced between her breasts as she thrust Clownpiece inside the storeroom. "Come and get your fairy!"

Only the silence of the paper  _akari shoji_  walls and the stacked boxes stored within greeted her.

Marisa flounced across the straw  _tatami_  mats, dragging the hapless fairy along with her. "Stop pretending that you're asleep. I know your tricks." She threw open the sliding door to Reimu's bedroom. Where a tangle of sleeping shrine maiden, bed clothes, and futon bed should have rested, lay only  _tatami_  mats.

"It wouldn't be right to move anything into her room while she is gone," a kind voice called out behind Marisa.

The blond witch whirled around and froze. A shrine maiden in traditional red and white robes filled the doorway of the storehouse, brushing away dust from the entry mat with a besom. When did Reimu find help for her shrine? And, more importantly,  _where_?

As questions flooded Marisa's mind, Clownpiece slipped unnoticed out of her grasp and dove behind a stack of crates.

The witch's instincts quickly reasserted themselves. After checking her for  _danmaku_  and spell cards, Marisa took stock of the Hakurei shrine's new maiden. Blacker than raven feathers and ten times more sought after by women throughout Japan's history, the girl's floor-length hair was gathered at her neck by a white ribbon. Her figure was slender but fuller than Marisa's. But what set the witch's teeth on edge was the shrine maiden's wide eyes and round face, the epitome of the southern  _tanaka_ ideal of womanhood celebrated in the courts of Kyoto. Such a classical beauty should have set every tongue in Gensokyo wagging until the rumors reached Marisa inside timeless Eternity Manor. But when Marisa met the shrine maiden's eyes, she recognized the fires burning within.

"Mokou?"

The eternal Fujiwara maiden sighed. "Let me make some tea."

* * *

Marisa sat on the shrine's patio deck, shifting as her seat grew too warm. She shook her head at the wisps of smoke rising from between the planks. That hellfire fairy was not as clever at hiding as she liked to think. The witch rapped her knuckles against the deck. The wood cooled, somewhat.

"Thank you for waiting." Mokou stepped out of the shrine with a tray of three heavy tea mugs. One mug she set by Marisa's side, one on the dirt by the patio's edge, and the last, the shrine maiden held between her bloodless hands as she sat.

"Cheers." Marisa clanked her clay mug against Mokou's. Her eyes grew wide as she sipped. Instead of green tea, Mokou had brewed an herbal tisane of lady-slipper and elder flower, a useful remedy for nerves. "What's going on?"

Mokou stared out at the Forest of Magic in the distance. "I should ask you the same question."

Marisa fiddled with her carrot necklace. Out in the dust, the third mug vanished. "Eirin offered me a chance to stury Chinese herb lore. She didn't tell me about the dress code." The witch smoothed the skirt of her pink dress. Even after weeks wearing the rabbits' uniform, Marisa felt underdressed without her apron and her hat. She reached over and tugged on Mokou's ribbon-trimmed sleeve. "So what's your story? And where's Reimu?"

Mokou brushed a loose strand of ink dark hair back behind her shoulder. "It's complicated." Her face grew as scarlet as her name.

A single spell card appeared between Marisa's fingers. "I'm good at making things simple." She walked the spell card across her knuckles. "Although I could have used you or Reimu to help settle last night's incident. Those fairies are getting scrappy."

"I couldn't have helped. I swore an oath." Mokou shrank away from Marisa's incredulous stare and hid her face. "I promised not to use my powers, not to dye my hair, and not to lose my temper so long as I wear the red and white."

Memories of a dozen incidents flashed before Marisa's eyes. "I can't imagine Reimu asking you to do that." The spell card vanished in her hand.

"It was my grandfather."

Marisa pursed her lips as she stared at Mokou through narrow eyes. The eternal shrine maiden's grandfather should have been dead centuries ago. But Prince Shotoku and his entourage had returned from the distant past in the guise of Miko Toyosatomimi and her friends. Perhaps last night's incident was not yet over. "Start over from the beginning."

Mokou sipped her tea for the first time and shivered. "I ran into trouble three months ago. I needed time to think, so I took refuge here at the shrine."

While most religious practices bored Marisa, every young woman in Gensokyo knew about the protection offered by the shrine. The witch sighed. It must be nice to have a suitor, even if a little time apart was occasionally needed. "I bet Reimu was thrilled."

"She put me to work on the third day. Then she got mad because I did her duties around the shrine better." Mokou giggled, stood, and twirled around. "I was a shrine maiden for a year before the bookbinder's wife introduced herself to my father." Fire filled her eyes as she spoke of Kaguya Houraisan.

Marisa laughed. "I wish I could have seen Reimu's face."

"You know how she looks when's she's fired up?" Mokou hid her laughter behind her sleeve, then dropped next to Marisa. "I wish Reimu was here. Shinto has changed so much, and I can't keep track of all the new ways. I'd check on her, but someone's got to keep the shrine out of Kasen's hands."

"Where did she go? And when?"

Mokou stared once more towards the Forest of Magic. "She left a month ago. In hindsight, I should have realized what was happening. Reimu secluded herself for ritual purification. At the end of the week, she vanished. The next day, an hour before Kasen flounced through the  _torii_ gate in shrine maiden's garb, our priestess arrived—"

Marisa held up her hand. "Who's that?"

"Sanae." Mokou ignored Marisa's rolling eyes. "She told me not to worry, that Reimu was safe, but only the Moriya gods knew where she was."

Marisa leapt to her feet, tipping over her tea cup. As Mokou scooted away from the spreading puddle, the witch hustled towards the storeroom. "Time to pay Wonder Girl a visit," Marisa called over her shoulder.

"Youkai Mountain is that way." Mokou pointed towards the horizon.

"Yes, but I stashed a spare dress in here." Marisa ducked into the storeroom and rummaged through the nearest stack of boxes.

* * *

Marisa pulled the brim of her witch's hat low, shielding her eyes from the noonday sun as she hiked the switchback path towards the Moriya hamlet. Back in her black bespoke dress and apron, she groaned as the ever-present rustle of leaves followed her, like a child stomping through underbrush. She paused and glanced over her shoulder. The trail was empty, lined only by swaying brush.

The witch resumed her hike, accompanied once more by the crackle of dry leaves. This time, Marisa kept walking, until she passed a bamboo canebrake next to a dogleg in the road. She whirled around once more.

The canebrake shivered in the breeze. Marisa eyed the greening leaves. She padded towards the bamboo, parted the canes, and reached into the thicket.

"Didn't you learn your lesson last night?" Gritting her teeth, Marisa hoisted Clownpiece out of the grass.

The harlequin fairy planted her fists on her hips. "I let you win." Clownpiece quailed under Marisa's stern glare. "Someone has to find Reimu. The shrine's changed while she's been away."

Understanding filled Marisa. Fairies matched the temper of a location. If the shrine changed too much, Clownpiece would have to find a new home. She dropped the hell fairy in the middle of the road. "Stay close." She motioned for Clownpiece to follow.

The blond fairy ran in front of Marisa and twirled around. "I promise I won't cause trouble." The jester's cheeks dimpled with feigned cuteness. "Much."

Marisa shrugged and continued her climb, occasionally chiming in as Clownpiece scurried from wonder to wonder. Whether jeweled beetles, mushroom fans, or even one startled snake, each rock and branch hosted a new marvel to discover. But it was at the end of the trail where the fairy's eyes grew widest.

A hundred men and women, humans and youkai, bustled through the open air festival market that surrounded Moriya hamlet. Each reveler wore the layered  _kasane_  colors of the maple, green over yellow over red, like the turning of leaves in fall. At the heart of the hamlet, a thick ropeway cable rose skyward towards the summit of Youkai Mountain and the Moriya Shrine.

As soon as the breeze bore the aroma of chocolate crepes, the harlequin fairy rushed headlong towards the bazaar of tents and stalls. Marisa, however, tarried for a moment, tidying stray locks of blond hair back into curls. While she languished under Eirin's tutelage, the bunny girls boasted of Moriya's reputation.

Strolling through the market, she discovered that the bunnies did not lie. For the devout, the stalls sold votives, candles, and charms. Sweets and teas tempted children, and sake, their parents. Most importantly, for the pretty, a small garden of flowers and ribbons grew on the counters, waiting to be picked by the platoon of well-dressed and stocky suitors.

The pretty and the handsome swarmed the market. Fair-haired Celestial girls waved their marriage veils at the merchants, farmboys, and _tengu_ guards that passed by. Bunny girls strutted across the sidewalks, advertising for matchmakers. A silvery  _satori_  maiden appeared behind a bashful boy, throwing her arms around his shoulders before pecking him on the cheek. Giggling, she vanished afterward, leaving him a blushing, stammering wreck.

Not everything in the hamlet was sweetness and light. Spitting venom, Yamame Kurodani rocked a handsy man onto his heels with a jaw-wrenching slap. A pair of wolf- _tengu_ shield maidens accosted him soon after. A gust of wind sped him down the mountain towards the Human Village.

Marisa resolved to come back in her best dress before Alice worked up her courage to join the crowd.

"Excuse me, my dear." A hand tugged at Marisa's sleeve. She reached for the eight-sided elemental furnace in her apron's pocket. A steel-haired gentleman in a black kimono crouched by the wall of the general store. He flashed a grandfatherly smile, and her magical furnace was forgotten. "Are you heading to the shrine?"

Marisa dimpled prettily and nodded.

The elderly man fished inside a coin purse. "My granddaughter went to the shrine for a special blessing." He held out a silver flower. "But she forgot her favorite charm. Could you take her this?"

Estranged from her family Marisa might be, the young woman still felt the tug of filial duty. As her daddy told her again and again, good girls helped their elders. She took the flower, an ever popular wisteria blossom set in silver. "Who is your granddaughter?"

A shrill whistle blared an arpeggio, cutting through the chatter of the crowd.

As if a spell broke, Marisa blinked and found herself alone, still holding the silver blossom. A coppery  _satori_  in velvet rushed over and seized her by the shoulders.

"Have you seen Koishi?" The  _satori_  shook Marisa. Instinctively, the witch recoiled from the tin star on the woman's breast. The velvet  _satori_ 's third eye stared unblinking into Marisa's. The mind reader pushed Marisa towards the cable car platform. "I am not the Yama judge; I don't have time to lecture you on your misdeeds. You'd better hurry if you want to make the next cable car to the Moriya Shrine. And if you see Koishi, please stop that kissing bandit before her lips get her in trouble."

The  _satori_  vanished in a swirl of rose petals.

* * *

The wooden cable car ratcheted up the ropeway cable towards the Moriya Shrine. Inside, Marisa drummed her fingers as she stared at the horizon. She had hoped the cable car was one of those thrill rides that Sanae and Sumireko boasted about. Instead, the ride treated her to a scenic tour of Youkai Mountain's landmarks. Pretty, but nothing she hadn't already seen from atop her broomstick.

Idly, she checked the spell card deck hidden in her apron. Sanae loved a good duel, and if sweet reason couldn't wheedle Reimu's hiding spot from the priestess, a rousing round of  _danmaku_  would. Thanks to Clownpiece's fairy war the night before, Marisa was down to two spell cards, and, with Youkai Mountain growing in the cable car's window, there was not enough time to make more.

_Kappa_ -wrought gears ground to a stop as the cable car settled on the shrine's platform. Marisa slipped out of the wooden gondola and around the sacred  _torii_  gate. As soon as the witch stepped into the shrine's vast courtyard, an iron  _chakram_  ring scythed past, slicing her skirt.


	3. The Moriya Bells

The  _chakram_  ring ripped through Marisa's skirt, ricocheting off the tiled courtyard with a spray of chipped rock. Marisa paused in mid-step and waited for the rest of the  _danmaku_  trap to spring.

Two more iron rings skipped across the stones, shedding sparks as they flew past on either side of Marisa. The witch flung a scatter of  _danmaku_  shot blindly, then leaped into the vast open clearing. The wise duelist sought room to move, not cover.

Her shot skittered across the stone tile like burning coals. The tile buckled upwards, showering the shrine with stone flakes. Black loam fountained from the wound. Suwako Moriya burst out of the mountain and lunged towards Marisa. Iron rings sprouted from the goddess's hands like feathers, whirling around her in a cyclone of blades.

Marisa cupped her trigram furnace and used her first spell card to carve away swathes from the metal storm, one Master Spark at a time. But Suwako pulled more  _chakrams_  from a stack atop her hat and filled the holes in the  _danmaku_  storm.

The witch's spell card faltered, and the blades once more swarmed towards her. A grazing iron ring turned Marisa's dress into a miniskirt. She backpedaled, driven towards the edge of the cliff. Gritting her teeth, the witch pulled a wand from the tatters of her apron and fenced in the air with its point. The sky filled with shining hexes.

The ancient misfortune goddess knew that game well. Black curses flew between the metal rings, building an impenetrable wall of doom that marched towards the cliff. Suddenly, Marisa found the precipice crumbling under her feet. She flung her last spell card into the magical maelstrom and charged.

The spell card flared, bathing the Moriya Shine in counterspells. The witch flew through the space now emptied of Suwako's magic.

Hexes flew once more as Suwako sprayed  _danmaku_  in Marisa's path. The witch sidestepped a stinging spell and tackled Suwako in her midsection. As the goddess folded in half, she cast one final spell before they both collapsed in a pile of legs, elbows, and Marisa's sudden, growing Rapunzel tresses.

"How dare you bring another god into my shrine?" Suwako growled. The petite goddess wormed out of Marisa's grasp and rolled away.

An earthen hand burst from the ground, catching Marisa in her gut before hurling the witch and her meters-long train of blond hair through the air. Gasping, she tucked herself into a ball—

—and floated into the arms of a man in black. A steel wisteria flower emblem burned on his well-muscled chest, matching the color of his hair. Marisa looked at his face and froze. The lines etched in his face only added to his regal bearing. Then his hand slid up her side towards her breasts. Marisa squirmed in his arms and kicked at the man.

"Stop that," he commanded. His fingers drew the silver flower icon from her pocket. He then set Marisa down on her feet and tousled her head. Suwako's curse broke, leaving Marisa's golden curls at a more manageable floor length. "Thank you, my dear."

"Stay away from her!" Suwako howled.  _Chakrams_  flew between Marisa and the man in black, forcing them apart. Marisa fell on her seat and backpedal from the renewed metal storm.

"Peace, be still." The man in black held up a hand. The iron rings hung motionless in the air before clattering to the ground. Marisa clung to the trigram furnace in her hand and searched the rags of her apron for chalk.

Suwako stamped her feet like a petulant child and screamed. Clouds gathered overhead, darkening the sky. Lightning stabbed into the stone in front of the earth goddess.

In that moment, Kanako Yasaka appeared in front of Suwako, brandishing a long  _naginata_  spear. The sky goddess leveled its point at the man in black's chest. "You are not allowed here." When Kanako spoke, a choir of a thousand voices joined hers.

From within the worship hall, the shrine's great  _suzu_  bell tolled out its warning. Defiant, Sanae Kochiya stood with her arms outstretched, blocking entry into the shrine's reliquary. Behind her, a flash of red ducked behind the doorjamb.

Marisa covered her ears and grit her teeth as each peal buffeted and shook her. But the goddess remained unfazed, and likewise the intruder.

"I am not an evil spirit to be driven away by noise and song," The man in black said.

Kanako snapped her fingers. The bell quieted, although the echoes of its song still sang from the surrounding mountains. "You will not take her."

"My beloved will offer herself freely, or I will not receive her. But I am here for another purpose." The man bowed to Suwako. "A request, one god to another."

Suwako sputtered in surprise, but quickly gathered her composure. Silt and gravel and rock gathered at her feet, jutting upward. "You may ask," the earth goddess declared as she sat on her rough-hewn throne, "but I might not answer."

"For the sake of your servant, I pray you do." The man in black bowed once more, keeping his eye on the blade of Kanako's  _naginata_. "I have heard throughout the centuries that you provide good husbands, if a maiden might prove worthy of them. I only ask that you look kindly upon Mokou."

Marisa's jaw dropped. A god had taken advantage of her, and for nothing more than Mokou? Suddenly, she recognized the white flower symbol on the man's robes as the  _mon_  emblem of the Fujiwara clan. Mokou swore her oaths to her grandfather. A pang of longing stabbed Marisa. At least Mokou still had family close to her.

Suwako's expression softened. "Of course, Lord Kamatari."

"Thank you. Let me leave you with a token of my appreciation." Lord Kamatari, founder of the Fujiwara clan, knelt and raked his fingers through the loose dirt stirred up by Suwako and Marisa's fight. A thousand sprouts poked out of the ground, filling the courtyard with a spreading carpet of vines, purple flowers, and the cloying fragrance of wisteria. As thunder gathered around Kanako, the Fujiwara god turned and walked away, vanishing as though he slipped into a fog bank. "Remember me to Reimu."

* * *

Inside a small changing room, Marisa held her breath and eased open a sliding door. With her newly grown hair wound into a tight bun, she slipped barefoot into the Moriya shrine's cloistered garden. Tip-toeing down the covered walkway, the sailor-suited witch peeked inside every window as she passed. Wherever the Moriya goddesses hid Reimu, it was not in the rooms lining the cloister.

Marisa grinned as she padded deeper into the shrine. The school uniform Sanae lent her might be a ridiculous dress that bared more thigh than any Gensokyo girl liked, but the short skirt made sneaking easier. Maybe she should ask Sumireko for one in a proper witchy black and white.

A plaque marked the shrine's office, one of many darkened rooms in this wing of the shrine. Marisa licked her lips and teased open the door.

A hissing rattle, sinister and sibilant, cut through the peace of the shrine's silence.

Marisa froze, but the rattle grew more urgent as it welled up from underfoot. She glanced at her bare feet and blanched. Coiled in the entry slithered the largest viper the witch ever saw. Three times longer than the most monstrous  _mamushi_  moccasin  _youaki_ , the white serpent reared back its head, opening its jaws wide enough to swallow a fairy. Venom beaded from its hooked fangs, and the tip of its tail was a white lightning blur. The witch backpedaled, spun around, and hared back to the garden towards the apple tree at its heart. She scrambled up the trunk and sheltered in its branches. Shielding her eyes from the afternoon sun, Marisa searched the grass for any scale of the white serpent.

"I should have known. Not even Kanako takes so long to change clothes." Sanae stepped out of the changing room, carrying Marisa's black hat in both hands.

"I was looking for a safety pin." Marisa ran a thumb along the inside of her waistband. "There's too much breathing room in this skirt."

"Not all of us are so blessed to be mistaken for a fairy in broad daylight." Sanae held the black hat high over her head. "You forgot this when you went snooping."

"Who, me?" Marisa knelt and reached for her hat. "I'm as pure as the driven snow."

Sanae pulled it away. "How does Reimu put up with your lies?"

"Let's go ask her." Marisa tumbled out of the tree and grabbed her hat from Sanae. She sprinted into the changing room, dashed back out, grabbed Sanae by her wrist, and dragged her back inside. The door slammed shut behind them.

"I don't know why you think Reimu is here." Sanae dug in her heels, to no avail.

"Mokou told me." Marisa raced through the room, dragging the wind priestess through the halls of the shrine's hospice. "Don't even try denying it. You're a terrible liar."

"Thank you, I think?"

Marisa threw open the hospice's door. "She's been minding the other shrine while Reimu's been away."

Sanae hid her laughter behind her hand. "You just now noticed? Where have you been?"

"I'm the one asking questions." Marisa stopped at the edge of the flowery meade now filling the shrine's courtyard. She paced as she considered the many buildings that lined the courtyard. "Which one of these has Reimu, and which one of these have giant snake demons?"

Sanae shook her hand out of Marisa's grasp. She rubbed her wrist then pointed to the welcome mat. "Fine, I'll take you to Reimu so you won't become a snake snack. Don't forget your shoes."

* * *

After winding through the maze of shrine buildings, Sanae and Marisa found Reimu standing in the doorway of the  _kagura-den_  rehearsal hall. With one hand on the doorjamb and the other over her heart, the Hakurei shrine maiden stared wistfully out over the flowery meade.

"Reimu!" Marisa ran to her and waved a hand in front of Reimu's unblinking eyes.

The shrine maiden blinked, then swatted Marisa's hand away. "Stop that."

"Where have you been? Mokou's in your shrine and the fairies are going nuts. If it wasn't for me, we'd be neck-deep in an incident."

Reimu bit back a retort and sighed. "The  _kannushi_  priest was right. I should have married before now."

"What's the problem?" Marisa cast a moue and folded her arms. "Looks like you've got a beau now. Sure, he's a little gray but his hands are big enough."

Reimu reddened, then coughed. "Lord Kamatari-no-Mikoto is the problem." Marisa waited but the shrine maiden refused to explain.

Sanae leaned over and whispered in Marisa's ear. "We shrine maidens are warned to marry early, lest we attract the amorous attentions of a god."

"What's the problem? Reimu's god is a better catch than even Yori Houraisan."

"Haven't you read  _any_  books on mythology?"

Marisa shrugged. "Are there any magic spells in those-?"

The  _clop_  of a hammer striking a wooden prayer bell cut her short, followed shortly by a second, a third, and then an unending metronome drone.

"Nanami." Reimu and Sanae groaned in unison. Both shrine maidens deflated as the capstan wheel at the ropeway platform squealed as it begun to turn.

"One of these days, I'm going to make those  _kappa_  invent the telephone," Sanae muttered. She closed her eyes then assumed the placid mask required of the priestess.

"At least they put that special signal in the ropeway terminal to warn us." Reimu brushed her hands against her pants and then tiptoed her way through the wisteria vines. "Might as well go see what she wants. With any luck, Marisa will get the lecture this time."

Marisa hopped from one clearing to the next. "Don't you have to go hide now?"

"Seriously, where have you been?" Reimu said. "Everyone in Gensokyo thinks I'm learning Shinto from Wonder Girl."

"Well, you are," Sanae said. The show-off floated about the bed of purple flowers. "But only in those few moments when you aren't pining away, that is."

"Just how many utterly divine suitors do you have?" Reimu puffed out her chest.

Marisa rolled her eyes while Sanae flounced her way over the flowers. Then the tempo of the tolling prayer bell grew more urgent. The witch watched the wind ripple through the vines, clamped a hand over her hat, and, with a spray of starry  _danmaku_ , launched herself into the air. A gust swept her across the courtyard onto the ropeway platform.

Above her, the wooden ropeway car descended from the final support tower. When the gondola's shadow shrouded the platform, a passenger's hand reached out of the window and groped along the door. The hand found a lever, and the gondola's door slid open. A coppery  _satori_  in black dropped from the cable car. She hit the ground rolling, and then Marisa found herself face to face with Nanami Komeiji, White Sheep of the Komeiji clan and the Desert Rose of Moriya.

"Hurry." Nanami seized Marisa by the shoulders and shoved the witch towards where the gondola was settling on the platform. "Unknown  _youkai_  have a human dry-gulched on the mountain."

"Where?" Marisa's blood boiled. Most youkai knew better than to break the spell card compact. Worse still, dry-gulching, or trapping a victim in a pass until thirst killed her, was murder done slow.

Nanami pointed to a cloud of black specks flying on the horizon. "Follow the buzzards."

Marisa leapt into the gondola, followed by Reimu and Sanae shouldering past each other through the doorway. Behind them, Nanami slammed shut the gondola door. Moments later, the cable car lifted from the platform, on its way down from the summit.


	4. Checkpoint Charlie

"Let us through!" shouted Reimu.

On the mountain road rolling down the foothills of Youkai Mountain, the irate shrine maiden loomed over a white wolf  _tengu_  scout. Little more than a puppy with a shield, the sentinel endured the tirade, her courage no doubt fortified by the half-finished wall, the watchtower, and the platoon of her  _tengu_  comrades at her back.

Marisa edged away from the center of attention, for the wise and broomless witch knew when to step back and seek a way around the barriers that sprouted in her path like mushrooms after the summer rain. With one eye riveted to the growing scavenger flock spiraling over Mount Tengu to the north, the witch uncapped a metal flask and cut the road dust in her mouth with mostly tea.

Sanae poked the little witch's side. Marisa glanced over and passed the flask. The Wonder Girl sipped daintily, then coughed. "Thanks," she croaked. "Where do we go from here?"

Marisa shrugged as she took the flask back. It didn't take a thief's eye to know their journey needed a long detour to the west, but much was missing from the Wonder Girl: whoppers, guile, and common sense. All the  _fun_  of being a witch.

The scout's ear twitched. As Reimu's protests ebbed, the  _tengu_  barked, "Stay put! The Sergeant of the Guard is on her way." A clawed finger stabbed out towards Marisa and Sanae.

Normally, Marisa treated the demands of watchdogs such as this pack of white wolf  _tengu_  as polite but ignorable requests. However, the archers in the watchtower would drive home a blizzard of barbed points to settle any argument. So the little witch stood in silence, sipping her mostly tea and examining the fortification in her path.

Beneath the watchtower, only a couple dekameters of finished wall stood, not enough to block off the pass, but the construction crew labored to change that. While one pair of spidery masons stacked stone to build the wall's base, a pair of carpenters posted timbers, and a third duo malleted home the wall's wooden panels. Behind them, a handyman troweled wet stucco across the growing wall. Shaded by a parasol, a wasp-waisted spiderette consulted blueprints atop a pallet of clay shingles.

With parade-ground precision, Momiji Inubashiri marched through the unfinished checkpoint. The wolf  _tengu_  sergeant halted in front of Reimu. Despite her annoyance, the clotheshorse in Marisa admired Momiji's spotless starched uniform.

Reimu drew in a breath to repeat her tirade, but Momiji cut off the shrine maiden with a raised hand. "Why is Marisa dressed like Captain Murasa?" the white wolf sergeant asked.

The shrine maiden froze, her jaw agape. Slowly, her mouth closed, her eyes narrowed, and her brow furled. "I don't know."

The schoolgirl witch grabbed the hem of her skirt and curtsied. "Only the cutest witches in Japan may wear this. And there are none cuter, or witchier, than me."

"She's mad," Momiji muttered.

"That's Marisa for you," Reimu replied.

Sanae shouldered her way in front of Reimu and met the sergeant's iron gaze. "Y _oukai_ have a man trapped on the mountain, and you're worried about fashion?"

"He is not  _tengu_. Neither are you. You all have to go back." Momiji pointed at the schoolgirl witch. "And that goes double for Stickyfingers Marisa."

Marisa held up her hands and waggled her fingers. "There's nothing here to take."

The archetect pulled herself free from her blueprints. She stared at Marisa and blanched. The spiderette slid off the pallet and rushed towards Momiji, her crown of braids falling apart into cornsilk strands. Cupping a hand, she whispered into the  _tengu_  sergeant's ear.

Momiji pursed her lips, trilling a shrill triad that cut through the construction din. Two files of wolf  _tengu_  scouts bracketed Marisa and the shrine maidens. The twin shield lines marched towards each other, sandwiching the human girls single file between them. Momiji whistled again, and the shield-maidens turned on their heels, becoming a marching column. "Second Squad will escort you from  _tengu_  lands to the hamlets of Moriya." The white wolf sergeant flashed her fangs for the briefest of moments. "For your own safety, of course."

A  _tengu_  squad leader took her post in command of the formation. "Forward,  _march!_ "

* * *

At the crossroads in the center of Moriya hamlet, surrounded by choirs of Celestial gawkers, the  _tengu_  formation halted. The squad leader barked her commands, and the twin lines of scouts pivoted around and marched away. Slinking behind Reimu and Sanae, Marisa waited for the  _tengu_  platoon to vanish below the crest of a hill. As soon as the last  _tokin_  hat disappeared, the schoolgirl witch scrambled down the opposite road out of the Moriya hamlet-

-right into the waiting shields of a  _tengu_  patrol. Marisa ricocheted off the shield line and back towards the crossroads. She fled to the southern exit, but another wall of painted shields greeted the witch. North, south, east, and west,  _tengu_  patrols barred her escape.

In a huff, Marisa returned to the shrine maidens at the crossroads, leaned against the general store, and pulled her hat low. With her eyes hidden, the magical thief cased the hamlet, noting where and when the  _tengu_  guards roved.

"My turn." Reimu cracked her knuckles and strode towards the largest  _tengu_  patrol. As the shields loomed in her way, the shrine maiden started shouting. This time, the  _tengu_  shouted back. As a crowd grew around Reimu, Sanae slumped on the wall next to Marisa.

"Don't get too comfortable," Marisa warned. "The longer Reimu has her fun, the longer we must wait before we can sneak past them."

"And the longer that poor man on the mountain has to suffer." Sanae sighed as Reimu shook her  _gohei_  purification staff at the white wolves. "Why didn't you stop her?"

Marisa pushed away from the wall and brushed clean her school uniform. "I'm all out of spell cards.  _Someone_  had to run herd on the fairies last night." The witch pursed her lips at a flash of gray in the crowd. "Besides, you volunteered as her chaperone. Better hurry, Reimu's silver fox is out on the prowl."

Sanae groaned, but her hands filled with spell cards. Marisa waved as the Wonder Girl hared after her wayward charge. Then she rubbed her hands together as she sized up the hamlet. Time to make the most of her wait.

The heavenly maidens of maple  _kasane_  in their flowery stoplight splendor scoffed as Marisa barreled past. Whether the sacrilege of her witch's hat, the plainness of her schoolgirl's dress, or the immodesty of her bared thighs drew their ire, Marisa could not care less. Magic awaited within the tents and stalls of the Moriya hamlet.

But first, the components.

The properly prepared practitioner of  _danmaku_  magic always kept a deck of blank spell cards at her side; Marisa's deft fingers relieved Sanae of hers while the priestess chaperoned Reimu away from the  _tengu_  guards. Talc and perfume, Marisa freed from a  _kappa_ 's rental boudoir, herbs, from a bouquet discarded in haste while a swain eagerly kissed his veiled  _inamorata_  behind the Wandering Eye. From the saloon itself, she purloined a reed broom. Mushrooms vanished from the  _mise en place_  of Mystia Lorelei's lamprey stand. But the greatest treasure to vanish up Marisa's short sleeves was a bottle of soot-black  _sumi_  ink left unnoticed when the kissing bandit tackled a calligrapher.

The maple maidens parted in front of Marisa as she bee-lined towards the counters near the food stalls. Settling at an empty counter at the edge of the food court, she emptied her new treasures onto the placemat before her. As soon as her trigram furnace was alight, Marisa shook the bottle of ink and gave thanks for lazy writers. Normally, the schoolgirl witch would grind her own ink from the perfumes and powders collected, as she should if she wanted the most powerful spell cards. But a set of half-power spell cards beat having none at all.

She filled the cap with shining black  _sumi_  ink and dipped a nail into the liquid. With a draftsman's precision, she etched a complex tessellation of geometric figures on the face of a blank card. There was nothing special about the nail; Koishi's kiss-and-run act did not distract the calligrapher long enough for Marisa to steal both the ink and a brush. After blowing the ink dry, the schoolgirl witch set the Milky Way card atop her trigram furnace. An actinic glow seeped into its midnight lines.

The arcane design for Master Spark was far simpler to draw. Within moments, Marisa stacked two new spell cards onto the trigram furnace. She flipped over a fourth blank card and wetted the point of her nail in the ink once more. Perhaps she would draw the intricate geometries of Non-Dimensional Laser this time-

"Hey, there, witchy woman." Clownpiece waved from her perch atop a crepes stand. The harlequin fairy bounced to her feet and planted her hands on her hips. "You left me."

Marisa eyed the dark halo of swooping birds over Mount Tengu. Better make this card yet another Master Spark. "Now's not the time, fairy."

Clownpiece grabbed a nearby shopping bag by the handles, then tumbled off the food stand's roof. "You won't get away from me this time."

"I'm too busy to play now." Marisa drew a star and beam with quick strokes. This card joined the others in the growing deck atop her furnace. "Unless you can show me how to slip past the  _tengu_  checkpoint."

"Is that all?" scoffed Clownpiece. She puffed out her chest. "I can do that. But you've got to do something for me."

"What do you want?"

"Take me to see Reimu." The harlequin fairy shrieked as she was yanked off her feet by the scruff of her neck.

"I'm right here." Reimu swept the harlequin fairy into a headlock. "Start talking."

* * *

Hugging the handle of her borrowed broom, Marisa flew low and fast over a mountain trail, driven towards the sunlight by the baying of a pack of wolf  _tengu_. With deliberate effort, she pulled away from the shrine maidens running at her side and drew abreast with Clownpiece at the head of their flight. "I thought you knew how to sneak past those  _tengu_."

The fleeing fairy's white wings blurred as she zipped ahead of the witch. "It's my job to get you past their checkpoint. It was yours to get us out of the town."

"Stop talking. Fly faster." Reimu panted as she bounded along the packed dirt road.

Sanae glanced over her shoulder as she chased the harlequin fairy. "How much further?"

"Tired already? Keep up."

"I ran cross country in school. This isn't even a warm-up" The Wonder Girl kicked up her heels and darted ahead of Reimu. Behind them, the baying grew louder. With wide eyes, Reimu scrambled to catch up to Sanae.

"Almost there." Clownpiece plunged over the crest of a hill, then dove towards a field of bramble-choked mounds. The nimble fairy slipped over a fence and pulled away a leafy curtain from a white trellis arch nearly three meters tall and thrice as wide. Marisa swooped after her and groaned as she overshot the harlequin fairy.

"In here," the star-spangled fairy beckoned. The shrine maidens vaulted the rails of the wooden fence and vanished behind the leafy curtain. Marisa, however, cut as tight a banking turn as her broom could manage. The howls grew even louder. The little witch expected a shield line of  _tengu_  scouts to crash out of the hilltop tree line.

Marisa wrestled with her broom, wrenching the handle around until it pointed at Clownpiece. Then the broom surged forward, hugging the ground so that Marisa's heels raked the brambles' leaves. As soon as the shade from the leafy canopy covered her, Marisa leapt from her broom and landed next to Clownpiece. Sanae yelped as the broomstick brushed by her head and clattered against the wooden frame.

As Clownpiece dragged the leafy curtain back in place, Marisa held up a hand. "Wait." The schoolgirl witch slid her fingers inside the band of her hat. She pulled free a pair of thin glass tubes, dropped them into the dirt, and ground them into dust underneath her boot. The air grew thick with the cloying sweetness of wisteria flowers. "Now we can go. Better hurry, though, that perfume won't hide our scent from the  _tengu_  forever."

Marisa spun around and found her broom thrust bristle first in her face.

"How long have you been stealing from  _tengu_?" Sanae punctuated her words with a jab of the broom.

The schoolgirl witch swiped the broom from Sanae's hands. "Every lady has her secrets."

Reimu rolled her eyes. "Since when have you been a lady?"

Before the witch could answer, Clownpiece zipped between Sanae and Marisa, grabbing both of them by their wrists. Her wings a blur, the harlequin fairy dragged both young women into the shadows. Marisa gasped as she found herself inside a leafy tunnel wide enough to hide a cottage. Vines full of yellow flowers crawled up the crossed slats connecting a network of arches, tangling around each other and the terraced flower beds built into the curved walls. An occasional cucumber, none larger than Marisa's pinky, dangled from the canopy.

Just one arch would cover an average family's garden, and there were enough arches to run the full length of a buckwheat field. Marisa squinted as she sought the end of the leafy green tunnel. The trellised garden might even stretch over more than one field.

Clownpiece yanked on Marisa's arm, forcing the witch to scramble to keep up. The fairy led the girls past a long scaffold running the length of three arches before ducking behind Sanae's back.

A chorus of cackles, as though from a coven of black witches, rustled the canopy of vines. Immediately, Marisa pressed her back against Reimu's. With a spell card in hand, the witch scanned the archway tunnel, high to low and left to right.

"Back to back, now!" Reimu commanded.

"This ain't my first dance." Marisa's eyes narrowed as a shimmer darted between the vines.

"Not you. Them." Reimu pointed at Sanae with her  _gohei_  staff. The wind priestess spun in circles, searching for the source of the hair-raising laughter while Clownpiece perched on her shoulders. "Sanae, get over here."

Sheepish, the wind priestess took her place shoulder to shoulder with Marisa and Reimu. Atop her perch, Clownpiece held out her hand, and a shower of sparks sizzled as her hell torch burst into flame. Its silver glow cast long fingers of shadow throughout the archway trellises.

A jet of water lanced out, quenching the torch with a hiss of sulfurous steam.

"Get the skillets, girls, we're having human  _andouillette_  tonight," a soubrette taunted from a copse of yellow cucumber flowers.


	5. The Dry-Gulched Man

Inside the tunnel canopy formed by cucumber vines, hidden voices hurled chants of " _andouillette"_  in the faces of Sanae, Reimu, and Marisa. The three incident resolvers stood back to back and bristled with spell cards. Atop the wind priestess's shoulders, Clownpiece pouted as she shook her waterlogged torch dry.

" _Kappa_ ," Marisa groaned, casting her broom behind her. Many  _youkai_  boasted of eating humans, but only the river  _youkai_  served them up as  _charcuterie_.

"How many of these brats do I finally get to seal away?" Reimu swung her prayer staff gleefully.

"I see three trying to hide in front of me," Sanae said. The leaf canopy rustled over the wind priestess's head.

" _Yamawaro_ , not  _kappa_ ," the soubrette said. A petite girl no taller than Marisa squeezed through the trellis. Except for her butternut explorer's dress and pith helmet, she was a twin to the denim-clad  _kappa_  of the Genbu Ravine. A dozen gadget girls in khaki appeared throughout the tunnel as camouflage cloak fell away. The  _youkai_  mob encircled Marisa and the shrine maidens. "We're their mountain cousins."

Clownpiece fluttered into the air. The harlequin fairy planted her fists on her hips. "You let me play here all the time. Why are you stopping us?"

The  _yamawaro_  soubrette's face brightened as she waved. "Hi, Clownpiece. You can play as long you want."

"They're here with me."

"But they're not fairies." The soubrette tapped her finger against her lips. "We let fairies play here because you make our harvests bigger. Humans don't do that unless we bury them first."

"May the blessings of the eight million gods of the sky multiply the bounty of your harvest." Sanae bowed her head and waved her prayer staff. A diffuse glow trailed from the tassels of the wind priestess's staff, settling over the nearest cucumber flowers. As the glow faded, she elbowed Reimu's side.

"May the blessings of the eight million gods of the earth nourish your fields." Reimu bowed her head and clapped her hands. The soil at her feet darkened with humus. Then the fortune-telling shrine maiden cast six coins. "Try to get Wriggle out here before the swarms of leaf miners hatch next week."

A squad of pith helmets turned towards Marisa. The schoolgirl witch yawned, "Don't look at me. I'm a witch."

Amid low chuckles, the  _yamawaro_  ringing the village girls licked their lips as they crept closer.

Reimu stooped for the coins at her feet. "Fake something," she hissed.

Marisa kept her trigram furnace trained on the soubrette. "With what? Blessings are your job. Now, if these turtle girls want to see a  _death curse_ …" The petite witch bellowed the last two words, and the shadows beneath the vine canopy darkened. As the  _yamawaro_  shrank away, Marisa winked at their leader.  _Perhaps just one cackle…_

The pallid soubrette backed into the trellis arch and gasped. Regaining her composure, she found her wavering voice. "We shan't have you for dinner, then. But you won't take one step further-"

A murder of crows shrieked in the distance, sending shivers up Marisa's spine.

The petite soubrette flinched from the caws. "Oh, this is an incident. In that case, Reimu and Sanae can go." She pointed at Marisa, then held up her hand. "But if Marisa won't feed our crops, she must toil in our fields before she can leave."

Reimu rested her hands on the back of Marisa's shoulders. "Okay." She shoved the schoolgirl witch towards the  _yamawaro_  leader.

Marisa stumbled then whirled around. "Why should I work for the  _yamawaro_? They don't even know-" Her grin froze as she searched the trellis vines with her eyes. Only the bare earth between cucumber plants stood out. "-they don't even know about companion planting."

Reimu shrugged. "That's your problem."

"Can we go save that poor man dry-gulched on the mountain now?" Sanae said.

The soubrette made shooing motions with her hands. With a twirl of her skirts, Reimu spun around and dragged Clownpiece and Sanae deeper into the vine canopy tunnel.

Marisa tried to follow, but a quartet of khaki-clad  _yamawaro_  girls walled off her escape.

"Start talking or start raking," the soubrette chirped. "But beware, every lie you tell is another day of work you owe us."

Marisa rolled her eyes. Notoriety bore a price, but at least these mountain yokel  _youkai_  knew of her. She glanced at the yellow flowers in the canopy. A wealth of herblore, hammered home every night during her three-month apprenticeship to Eirin Yagokoro, welled in her mind. "Beets. Where are your beets?"

"We have enough problems with snooping bunny girls. Why should we set out snacks for them?" The soubrette held up two fingers. "Time to trade your broom for a rake. You owe us two days' work."

Words tumbled from Marisa's lips. "Nitori said you only attack humans for the salt in our blood."

"Our cousin is too generous with family secrets," the soubrette said, scowling.

"Beets store salt as they grow." A titter ran through the  _yamawaro_  surrounding Marisa.

"I think you meant to say sugar." The soubrette held up a third finger.

"I said the same thing to Eirin." Marisa rubbed the back of her hand as she felt the phantom echo of the lunar sage's well-worn hickory switch. A shadow from the mountain fell over the cucumber farm, blotting away the last rays of sunlight that poked through the leafy canopy. "She was most insistent on correcting me."

A dusky  _yamawaro_  flipped open a pocket notebook and, with a stub of a pencil, scribbled madly. Her eyes flew wide open. She ran up to the soubrette and flipped the notebook around to present the dense scrawl of figures on the page.

"Can I go?" Marisa prodded her fallen broom with her foot and it floated off the ground. Sitting sidesaddle near the bristles, the schoolgirl witch made shooing motions at the quartet of mountain  _kappa_  girls in her way. "You asked for something to increase your harvests. Plant beets and you'll have more cucumbers plus a source of sugar and salt."

The soubrette pursed her lips as she mulled over the notebook. "This better not be another of your witchy whoppers."

Marisa pulled the brim of her hat over her eyes. "It's what Eirin taught me. If it's wrong, we'll go complain to her together."

The soubrette's fingers lowered, and the  _yamawaro_  quartet stepped aside.

With a spray of stars, the schoolgirl witch sped away in pursuit of the shrine maidens of paradise.

* * *

A gust swept across Mount Tengu, rattling the stunted timberline firs and sending shivers through Marisa. High overhead, winged silhouettes spiraled through the spreading purple sky of twilight. A second chill raised her hackles as Sanae rushed past. The Wonder Girl flounced up the terraced trail towards the summit, her hands aglow with ready spell cards. The schoolgirl witch wished for a longer skirt as she floated in Sanae's wake on a borrowed broom.

For a moment, the glare from Sanae's spell cards split into twin trails like Avatara Shou Toramaru's curving lasers. Marisa yawned, then rubbed her eyes. The streaks vanished. Stifling another yawn, she uncapped her hip flask and knocked back a long pull of the bitter tonic. Warmth flooded through her petite frame as the dogwood-infused  _sake_  swept away the fatigue of the day's incidents.

Reimu tapped Marisa's shoulder, then plucked the flask of spirits from the witch's hand. The shrine maiden sniffed the open flask and wrinkled her nose. "Go easy on that."

Marisa groaned as Clownpiece bounced up and stole the flask. Within seconds, the hell fairy drained it, swaying as she wiped her mouth and tossed the empty flask to the witch. "It's Eirin's recipe. Besides, I've been awake since yesterday morning, I have to last a couple more hours."

"I'm leaving you behind if you fall asleep."

"Just tuck me away somewhere nice and mossy."

Sanae bounded up a staircase ladder bridging a shallow cut across the mountain trail. At the top, she ducked behind the brush at the edge of the timberline. Her silhouette blended in with the forest's twilight shadows.

Marisa turned her head away from Sanae until the wind priestess appeared in her peripheral vision. The Wonder Girl pointed at the nearby round top and beckoned.

"Finally," Reimu said,  _sotto voce_. The shrine maiden hopped up the stairway with a spring to her step and Clownpiece on her heels.

Marisa pointed her broom at the hilltop and sideslipped up the ladder towards Sanae. As the foliage thinned, neon flashed like heat lightning, bathing the barren hilltop in pastel light. Eight shadowed figures crawled over the round top's ridge. One at a time, each shadow hurled a spreading starburst of sparks at a cleft that split the hilltop like a lightning bolt.

The shrine maidens turned towards Marisa. "What are we facing?" Reimu asked.

The schoolgirl witch pursed her lips and waited for the next scattering of sparks. The starburst separated in a familiar pattern of wheels and spokes. "Earth spiders. Try as they might, those bandits can never get away from their webs."

Clownpiece leaped into the air and hovered above Marisa's shoulders. "How can you tell?"

"I wrote the book."

Sanae tugged on the harlequin fairy's foot, dragging her behind the brush. "You should stay here. We wouldn't want to seal you away by accident."

"Speak for yourself," Reimu muttered. She bowed her head, and the Yin Yang Orbs, icons of the Hakurei god, appeared at her side.

Sanae peeked at the light show once more. "What's the plan?"

Marisa chuckled and patted her broom's bristles. "Isn't it obvious? Someone needs to check on that poor man. And, since I'm the fastest flyer…" Marisa rocketed out of the brush. "…keep them off me!" she called over her shoulder.

She dove low and away, the first leg of a swooping circle towards the cleft. As soon as she left the brush, however, webs of pale danmaku shot soared from the mountain to greet her. She jinked through the thickening flak, cursing the unbalanced broom. "Any time now."

The brushline remained quiet.

The witch grazed through a shrinking ring of starbursts. Her Milky Way spell card raked the round top, forcing the spiders' heads down. As the danmaku slackened, Marisa cut a tight banking turn and raced for the cleft, skimming over the stunted trees of the timberline. Milky Way faded, leaving only her trusted Master Spark to harry the spiders gunning for her.

Night became day as a flurry of  _danmaku_  swept out of the brushline and across the ridge. Half of the octet of spiders found cover from the shrine maidens' threat and returned fire. Within moments, the beautiful and admittedly wasteful dueling designs vanished, replaced by focused jets and sprays.

As the mountain rushed towards her, Marisa aimed a second Master Spark at a pair of spiders focused on Sanae. The witch's own attention lingered too long, and she flew too straight. Clusters of danmaku starbursts flared before her, herding Marisa into grazing through a low tunnel in the storm of sparks.

A giant Y-shaped pole crisscrossed with webbing bobbed up in her path—a birding net! Hemmed in on all sides by the neon spray, Marisa slammed on the brakes. A galaxy of stars showered around her.

The net hooked on the broomstick, dragging Marisa's broom away from the hilltop and down the spur of the mountainside. As the danmaku storm buffeting her abated, Marisa clamped one hand over her hat and stood on the falling broom's handle. She crouched, and, with an unwitchy thanks that her borrowed uniform was lighter than her preferred frilly dress, she launched herself from the broom. Stars scattered in her wake.

The schoolgirl witch tucked into a ball and tumbled across the barren ridge.  _Danmaku_  shot and spider webs whirled over Marisa's head. She rolled to her feet and found herself face to fang with a wasp-waisted spiderette. The youkai's crown of braids shone in the strobing glow of the  _danmaku_  fight.

"You were at the  _tengu_  checkpoint." Marisa advanced on the spiderette, hiding her last Master Spark spell card behind her back.

"And I know who you are." The blonde youkai cracked her knuckles. "I've been waiting for this moment. I am Akikonomu Kurodani, and I will defeat you."

Marisa watched the spiderette's hands. "Since when has Yamame let others do her fighting?"

Akikonomu spat at Yamame's name. She waved her hand, lobbing an arc of sparks towards the schoolgirl witch.

Marisa stood firm as the  _danmaku_  shot past. A beginner's pattern, used only to teach new duelists how to dodge. Did this spiderette sluggard think such a basic taunt would faze a fairy, much less a sorceress of  _danmaku_?

A call like the hooting of an owl in ecstasy pealed from the timberline. One by one, more voices took up the call, not in a chorus, but the chaotic baying of an unruly pack. Three shrill blasts from a whistle cut answered. Clouds of incandescent shot melted away, as did the earth spiders, who dragged three of their own with them. Sanae bounded after the spiders in pursuit, but Reimu whirled around to face the unseen mob.

"Dammed  _tengu_  mutts." Akikonomu threw a long ribbon of silk into the air. "Next time, no one will save you." The wind caught the unfurled ribbon and whisked the braided spiderette into the night sky.

Marisa shrugged off the taunt and bolted across the ridge towards the cleft. A rapid series of pops, like a kappa-wrought electric striker, greeted her. Marisa's eyes grew wide as sparks geysered from the wind-swept rocks, pushing her away from the cleft. As she backpedaled, Marisa flung her last spell card into the  _danmaku_  fountain. A silvery flash erased the geysers.

Marisa scrambled over the scorched rock, chased by the growing  _tengu_  din. As the inky night smothered the last embers of  _danmaku_  shot, Marisa fished a wand out of her hat. The star charm at its tip shone. Shadows shied away from its watery glow.

She darted forward and swept the wand through the cleft, bathing the inside with counterspells. Then Marisa squeezed past the icy walls of the mountain fissure. Inside, years of frost and wind split away a sepulchral refuge little wider than a closet from Mount Tengu. She cupped he elemental furnace and tapped the star charm of her wand against each of the eight trigrams etched into its surface. An amber flame kindled within, bathing the mountain refuge in light and warmth.

At the opposite end of the tiny cave, a figure huddled next to a stone basin. By his neck, he held closed the ends of a worn blanket wrapped around his shoulders. The man shuddered and raised his head towards the furnace in Marisa's hand. Sleepless days of hunger, thirst, and exposure wore crags into his face.

"Daddy?!" Marisa froze, her mouth agape. Then fatigue and adrenaline withdrawal overwhelmed her, and the schoolgirl witch pitched forward onto her father.

* * *

"Good Morning!" Kyouko Kasodani's greeting of the new day rolled down from the Myouren Temple's heights, echoing from the nearby mountains into Moriya hamlet and Marisa's hotel room. The blonde witch bolted upright in her bed, covering her ears. She blinked the blurriness from her sight and found herself face to face with lunatic red eyes.

Marisa scooted away, then covered her heart. "Don't scare me like that, Udonge."

"It's Reisen to you." Reisen Udongein Inaba flipped through a clipboard of charts, her rabbit ears straightening with each new scowl at the notes. Instead of the opulent dresses of a matchmaker, she wore the white robes and pants of a village apothecary nurse.

Out with it. Give me the bad news." Marisa crossed her arms in front of her chest. "

"You owe Sanae for a miracle. If it wasn't for her prayers to Suwako and the tenacity of Momiji's  _tengu_  scouts, you and your father would still be inside Mount Tengu." Reisen riffled through the charts, then hung the clipboard on the door.

Marisa closed her eyes and sighed. "So it wasn't just a nightmare."

"You don't realize how lucky you are. Master's tisanes must be brewed with water, not  _sake_." Reisen held up her hand. "Don't try denying it, I can still smell the alcohol on your breath."

"You're just as sunny as ever," Marisa groused. She glanced over at the nightstand. At least the  _tengu_  brought back her hat.

Reisen crumbled a brown powder into a mug of hot water. "I'm paid for results, not sweetness." The moon bunny nurse glowered at Marisa with glowing red eyes. "You  _will_  pay me."

"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for an aspirin today." Marisa grunted as Reisen shoved the mug into the witch's hands. An aroma of wintergreen mixed with sawdust wafted from the cup. "Willow bark tea. Close enough."

"I'll hold you to that." Reisen pushed the door open. "Your father is awake next door. He might appreciate a visit."

"You don't know my family." Marisa avoided the rabbit's red eyes. "I imagine he doesn't want to see me." She crushed the blanket in her hands.

"Not my family, not my problem." Reisen shook her head. "Whatever you decide, don't leave The Wandering Eye. You and your father are under house arrest." The moon bunny slammed the door leaving Marisa alone with her thoughts.

Marisa leapt out of bed and rushed to the window. Through the shutter's slats, she spied the sable wingspan of a crow  _tengu_  perched atop the general store. The witch bristled as she shrank into the shadows.

Moments later, Marisa slipped out of her room, clad once more in Sanae's school uniform. She prowled the hallway, giving her father's room a wide berth. At least until the Wonder Girl's giggles rang out from inside. The petite witch crouched by the keyhole and held her breath. With each new peal of Sanae's laughter, Marisa's hackles raised higher.

"Is that what Marisa was like as a little girl?" The Wonder Girl asked.

Only a complete lack of spell cards kept Marisa from slapping Sanae and demanding satisfaction. After an eternity, the blood stopped pounding in her ears long enough for Marisa to catch the wind priestess's next question.

"How did you survive for so long on the mountain?"

Marisa threw the door open and stomped inside. "My family has always had a knack with water." She stared daggers at an oblivious Wonder Girl.

"I worried that those spiders would catch on, especially after the fifth day." Mr. Kirisame held out his mug. Water beaded on the inside of the glass, filling the mug one drip at a time.

"Then why does Marisa favor stars and lasers?" Sanae asked him.

Mr. Kirisame met Marisa's eyes. "I'm sure she has her reasons."

Years of pent-up emotion boiled within Marisa. Before she could spit out a response, the witch felt a tapping on her shoulder. She spun around and found herself face to face with Reimu.

The shrine maiden examined Marisa through narrowed eyes, then tapped Marisa's forehead. A roll of paper unfurled over the witch's eyes.

"Good," Reimu said. "You aren't part  _kappa_."

Marisa ripped the paper from her face. Scarlet crept into her vision when she recognized the  _ofuda_  charm in her hand. "You tried to seal me away?!"

Reimu shrugged. "Can't be too careful these days."

Marisa sputtered as she choked back curses. Magical ones. Then she saw a flash of corn-silk in the corner of her eye. "Get away from my Daddy, fairy." Clownpiece blew the witch a raspberry before throwing her arms around Mr. Kirisame's shoulders.

Sanae hid her laughter behind her sleeve. "I knew it, Marisa is a Daddy's girl." A lilting note of singsong crept into the demure priestess's voice.

"Get out."

"Daddy's girl!" Clownpiece joined in the chorus.

Marisa balled her hands into fists and drew in a deep breath. "GET OUT!"

Sanae giggled as she headed to the door, with Clownpiece at her heels. Reimu, however, lingered a moment too long. A cloud of feathers and pillows hastened her departure. Marisa stood upon the bed next to her father and shook the last throw pillow at the door.

After an uncomfortable silence grew unbearable, Mr. Kirisame spoke. "You haven't changed at all." Sorrow crept into the shopkeeper's voice.

Marisa clenched her eyes shut. Her breath caught in her throat. After a slow count to ten, she faced her father. "Why were you out on Mount Tengu? Who was minding the store?"

Mr. Kirisame smiled sheepishly. "Have you heard of the Golden Room?"

The mention of gold swept away a river of frustrations. Then a sudden realization hit Marisa. She flounced to the foot of the bed and planted her hands on her hips—like a fairy moments from a tantrum. "You went on a treasure hunt without me?"

"You ran away from home before I could tell you."

"That was three years ago!"

Mr. Kirisame shrugged. "You never came back."

"Mother-"

"-has been gone for two years."

Marisa dropped onto the mattress. "You could have brought me back home at any time," she pouted.

The awkward silence returned as father and daughter avoided each other's gaze. Finally, Mr. Kirisame cleared his throat.

The bedroom door flew open, rebounding off of the wall.

Scarlet, Sanae hurled Reimu  _en deshabille_  into the room at Marisa. With a squawk, the schoolgirl witch rolled out of the way. Reimu bounced across the mattress, her unbuttoned blouse slipping further down her shoulders. Huddled next to the headboard, she scrubbed at the lipstick smeared across her face.

Mr. Kirisame coughed politely and pointed towards a folding screen set in the corner.

Reimu froze, suddenly aware of her impromptu and generous display of  _décolletage_. A crimson blur fled behind the screen.

A dozen blows hammered into the door shook Marisa from her amazement. "What's going on?"

Sanae dragged a night stand towards the door now papered with a constellation of Shinto wards. "Ask Reimu. It's been five minutes, and she's already courting trouble."

Marisa glanced at the screen, but Reimu declined to answer.

The wind priestess lodged the night stand underneath the door knob. She bowed her head and slapped a trio of wards against the furniture's sides. Sanae then whirled around and, trembling, bowed low to Mr. Kirisame. "Please forgive the intrusion. I knew of nowhere else to hide her."


	6. The Wandering Eye

Inside a rented room of The Wandering Eye, Marisa sat on the edge of her father's bed and waited for Sanae to finish weaving paper charms through the slats of the window's shutters. With each new barrier, the Wonder Girl turned their  _tengu-_ inflicted house arrest into a siege. The schoolgirl witch leaned over and whispered to the hooded figure by her side. "Sanae knows you can channel any god you want, right?"

"Not any." Despite wrapping a floor-length cotton robe over her now-tidied dress, Reimu kept her back to Marisa's snoring father. "Suwako's upset at me."

"Why?"

Sanae closed the shutters with a muted click. "You can ask Lady Suwako yourself when she gets here." The wind priestess knelt by the bed and bowed her head. A warm glow settled upon the frog ornament in the Wonder Girl's hair.

Marisa shrugged, then reached over Sanae for a brush on the nightstand. With long, languid strokes, the witch brushed out her ankle-length hair, draping each luminous tress over her shoulder. Occasionally, she folded her hair around her finger at various lengths and pursed her lips.

"Cut it to chin length." Reimu cast a glance over her shoulder. After Mr. Kirisame snored, she peeled back her hood. "You'll look cuter that way."

Marisa glared at Reimu. Even when gathered high in a bow, the shrine maiden's  _sumi_  ink hair still dangled between her shoulder blades. "I'll look like Rumia's sister, you mean."

Reimu mussed the top of Marisa's head. "I was thinking Ran's."

Marisa swatted the shrine maiden's hand away. "Or I could keep my hair long and steal Yukari's style."

"You should try Alice's instead."

"Bobbed blondes are a dime-a-dozen in Gensokyo. If you want short hair, cut your own."

"Lord Kamatari doesn't want me to." Reimu grew wistful for a moment, then defensive. "And I don't want to either."

Mr. Kirisame murmured as he turned in his sleep.

Reimu bit back a shriek and threw the hood over her head. The shrine maiden slid off the edge of the bed.

Marisa peered down upon the shrine maiden huddled on the floor. "Since you keep on dragging me into your business, why don't you tell me what's going on?"

"In front of him?" Reimu backed away from the bed and clutched her robed shut over her chest.

Marisa choked back laughter as she pointed to the figure wrapped in blankets. "My old man slept through the shrillest of my fights with my mother. A little girl talk won't wake him."

Reimu sighed, then slumped against the wall. "It's all Yukari's fault."

"Everyone says that." Marisa attacked a tangle of gold with her brush.

"It's true." Reimu shrank within her bathrobe. "Just before we first went to the moon, I peeped on the more handsome gods."

Marisa laughed as Sanae paused in her prayers to stare aghast at Reimu. "Where does Yukari fit in with that?"

"Who do you think gave me the idea? She called it 'training.'" Reimu snapped. The bed creaked, and the shrine maiden scrambled behind the privacy screen.

"How was the view?"

"Lord Ishikori has a divine set of abs," purred Reimu.

Sanae raised her eyes to the heavens, silently entreating with figures only she could see. The wind priestess pointed at the hidden shrine maiden.

Reimu peeked her hood around the screen. "Anyway, I thought I was so sneaky, until, one day, the gods peeped back."

"You're lucky that's all they did," Sanae hissed.

Reimu shushed the wind priestess and pointed at Mr. Kirisame. "Hey, I started working on my dowry the next day. That's enough for the gods to leave a girl alone. Usually."

"Obviously not for all. So what happens if you catch the eye of a god?" Marisa asked.

"It's like Prince Charming himself made me his Cinderella," Reimu cooed.

"But instead of being True Love, its mere lust for him, the most nauseating case of puppy love for her, and a reason for the eight million goddesses to sharpen their knives." Sanae glared daggers at the privacy screen.

"Who's the green-eyed monster now?" Reimu taunted.

"Have you even been paying attention to Hina, Minoriko, and Shion whenever you walk by?" Sanae said, aghast.

Marisa tapped the back of her brush against her cheek. "Should she?"

Sanae closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. "Ever notice just how many of the gods' lovers end up torn apart by beasts, transformed into trees, or cursed into oblivion?"

Marisa shrugged. There was never enough proper magic or  _danmaku_  to bother with mythology. She glanced at the door and froze. A razor-thin iron ring slipped between the door and its frame. As it ran up the full length of the door, the circular blade sliced through the paper charms.

The door swung open, and the traveler's room filled with the overwhelming clean fragrance of stinging nettles. Lady Suwako Moriya, the Iron Matron of Youkai Mountain, stood in the doorway. Silver lights trailed behind the earth goddess like serpents. "Blessings upon this room," the goddess croaked. A chill settled upon the room.

Marisa shivered, wishing she held her wand instead of a meager brush.

"Sanae, Reimu, come here." Suwako's words brokered no disagreement, and the two shine maidens rushed to her side. The iron goddess reached up, grabbed both girls by their earlobes, and twisted. "Please forgive these two for the trouble they brought to your door."

Suwako dragged away the hissing shrine maidens by their ears, lifting the siege of Moriya hamlet.

Marisa waited for the last silvery trail to fade away. Slowly, warmth crept back inside the bedroom. The schoolgirl witch headed towards the shuttered window, rubbing heat back into her arms. She poked a finger between two slats and turned the shutter until it revealed the crow  _tengu_  sentinel perched atop the nearby store.

The schoolgirl witch grinned. Time to push the limits of her freedom.

* * *

"Let go of me," Marisa hollered. Folded over the shoulder of a burly wolf  _tengu_  scout, the schoolgirl witch pounded on his back, her fists bouncing off his stiff leather vest. The scout remained impassive as he carried her through the Moriya hamlet, her wide-brimmed witch's hat in his hand.

A cascade of gold fell over her eyes. Marisa ceased drumming on the  _tengu's_  back long enough to lift her golden locks out of her eyes. The ends of her hair swept the road behind the scout. "My hair," she sputtered. The witch jabbed the  _tengu_  in his ribs with an elbow, then scrambled to gather up her hair in her arms.

The wolf  _tengu_  said nothing, but shifted Marisa higher on his shoulder.

Caught like a kitten by the scruff, Marisa cast acerbic glares at the maple-robed dandies and darlings gawking from the sidewalks.

The scout shouldered his way through The Wandering Eye's doors. Marisa shielded her head with her arms as the saloon doors swung past. The  _tengu_  scout rolled her off his shoulder and set her atop a high stool. Marisa whipped her open hand around at his face. The white wolf  _tengu_  caught it with his calloused hand. Marisa squirmed in his firm grip. The scout ignored her while he placed her witch's hat on the table in front of Marisa. He brushed dust from the wide black brim, released Marisa, and pivoted towards the door.

Marisa seethed as she glared daggers into the back of the scout as he marched out of the Wandering Eye. Muttering, she searched her memory for a curse to salve her pride in his pain. It was a shame that men did not duel with  _danmaku_.

The witch craned her neck around the saloon, staring down each woman present. Who would dare meet her eyes? Benben, slinging a bottle slide across her  _biwa_  while busking onstage? Nue, deep in her cups at the bar? Kogasa, tipsy and reeling in her chair from the constant stream of surprises? A cackle built in Marisa's throat.

"I told you so."

Marisa whirled around, but the cutting remark on her lips withered away under the unrelenting gaze of a coppery  _satori_. Nanami Komeiji, owner of The Wandering Eye, set water and fruit salad before Marisa. The swathes of sable, rose, and pearl wrapped around the peregrine parted, revealed the gnarled hickory handle of a well-worn switch on her hip.

Marisa moved to push the bowl away, but her stomach growled. With a sigh, she grabbed a fork and poked around the heap of pears, grapes, and blackberries. "I was just testing the  _tengu_." She speared a slice of what appeared to be a spikey plum.

"While wearing your hat." The White Sheep of the Komeiji stared at Marisa, nonplussed and unblinking.

"How else will people know I'm a witch?" Marisa nibbled at the fruit slice. With a sip of water, she washed down the strange mix of bubblegum and watermelon.

"But you can still cry."

Marisa choked on her drink. "I'm not that kind of witch," she rasped.

Nanami waved away the protest, then returned to her duties behind the bar.

Marisa glowered as she huddled over her breakfast bowl. Bite by bite, as her belly filled, the vinegar in her mood seeped away. She even grew to appreciate the strange spiked fruit in her bowl.

Silver snaked across the table, spearing a chunk of pear from Marisa's salad. Moments later, another streak swiped another slice away.

Clownpiece sat across the table from Marisa, a fork in each hand. The harlequin fairy's cheeks bulged while she chewed. "Prickly pears! I haven't had these since I left Hell." She chomped into the slice of spikey red fruit. One again, the fairy's fork darted towards Marisa's breakfast.

"What do you want, fairy?" Marisa speared Clownpiece's fork with her own. "I already found Reimu for you."

Clownpiece tugged on her fork. "That's not good enough."

"What do you want me to do, drag her back to her shrine?" Marisa shook her head as the hell fairy perked up. "Forget it."

The harlequin fairy's puppy dog eyes shimmered. "If you don't, I'll have to move out of the shrine." Her crocodile tears dried, replaced by a devilish grin that would give Koakuma pause. "I might even have to move in with you."

"It's your funeral." Marisa clapped her hands together and bowed her head. "May you become a sunflower fairy in your next life."

Clownpiece rocked forward and slammed her hands on the table. Before she could protest, her eyes grew wide. She vanished in a star-spangled blur, leaving behind only a whiff of sulfur and Marisa's empty placemat.

The schoolgirl witch's stomach rumbled. Marisa turned towards the bar, then jumped back in her seat as Nanami slapped the table with a rolled newspaper. On stage, Benben played the changes without missing a beat.

"That little brat knows better than to try sneaking in here." The coppery  _satori_  shook her newspaper at the windows. "Pay like everyone else!"

Marisa noticed the tin star next to Nanami's rose heart. "Speaking of which, did you ever find Koishi?"

With her third eye, the coppery  _satori_  glared at the witch. "I sent her back to Satori." Nanami lowered her voice and muttered, "Perhaps this time she'll stay at the palace."

Marisa pursed her lips. Recently, Koishi had dived into a trio of major incidents. "I doubt it."

"It's your fault, and Reimu's, too." Nanami leveled a steely gaze on Marisa with all three eyes. "You two make incident solving so easy, glamorous, and fun. A hundred  _youkai_  and human girls dream of their chance to play along."

Marisa remembered how eagerly Sanae rushed out of her shrine, spell cards in hand. Nanami had a point. "None of them are a patch on me."

"You've been gone for three months."

"I made up for it. I've stopped another Fairy War, and found Reimu." Marisa trailed off as she counted incidents on her fingers, quickly needing a second hand. Once she added the  _tengu_  checkpoint, the  _yamawaro_  hedge tunnels, and the earth spider ambush, she realized how frantic her first two days back were. Were the last three months just as busy? "Who picked up the slack?"

"Chen and Akane Yakumo, Hatate, Doremy. Most recently, the Moon Maid."

"Ever since Kaguya's wedding, moon maidens are in short supply." Marisa sipped her water. "Or did you mean Sakuya?"

"Her silhouette's wrong." Nanami's eyes darted towards the saloon's swinging doors.

Reisen pushed her way into The Wandering Eye, still clad in her medical whites. Her pistol sat on her hip, still sporting its bunny ears sights. With the expressionless mask Marisa recognized from a dozen disasters during her stay at Eternity Manor, the moon bunny nurse hauled a heavy satchel of supplies towards the stairs.

"What about her?" Marisa nodded towards Reisen.

Nanami shook her head.

The bunnygirl trudged up the creaking stairs. Marisa's heart raced as her thoughts turned towards her father, then the familiar heartache of the prodigal overwhelmed her. The witch instead dwelled on a more pleasant memory from her father. "Nanami, have you hear of a Golden Room?"

The  _satori_  saloonkeeper shook her head. "You're in luck. Talk to Nue." Then,  _sotto voce_ , "So I don't have to."

The witch slipped off her stool and rushed over to the bar. She perched atop a nearby stool and braced Nue with questions.

"The Golden Room?" Nue interrupted Marisa with a wave of a hand. The alluring cryptid coquette slammed her stein on the bar. She bellowed, "Nanami! Give me something stronger so I can stomach her nonsense."

"Give me a double of whatever she's having." Marisa elbowed Nue hard under the ribs. "Maybe this  _danmaku_  dilettante will finally be a challenge."

The coppery  _satori_  rolled her eyes as she retrieved a pair of glass mugs from an overhead rack. After fussing with the tap, Nanami set two beers in front of the girls. The schoolgirl witch frowned; her drink was several shades paler than Nue's.

"It's on the house." The White Sheep of the Komeiji clan flashed a predatory grin and nodded towards Nue.

Marisa shrugged and sipped on her watered-down lager. The day she needed help to drub a soon-to-be drunken  _danmaku_  ingénue was the day she would hang up her hat and broom. But no witch ever turned down free drinks.

"So, the Golden Room? Yes, I was there when Unzan hurled it out of the abbess's ship. So was Nazrin." Nue drained her stein. "Now, I know you've got a thousand questions, just like everyone else who nags me about that accursed treasure. Here's one for you.

"Why hasn't our treasure mad mouseling searched for the Golden Room?"

Nue slid off her barstool and strutted out the saloon's swinging doors.


	7. Sealed with a Kiss

Three days later, Marisa waltzed through The Wandering Eye's dining room under the eyes of her crow  _tengu_  captors. The schoolgirl witch clutched a black-and-white bundle to the breast of her uniform. As she twirled around, a curtain of gold swept behind her.

Alice's care package finally arrived.

The petite witch flew up the stairs, two steps at a time. At the top, Marisa froze, and dipped a hand into her purse.

The door to her room was wide open.

With her trigram furnace at the ready, Marisa slid along the wall towards her room. After scurrying past her daddy's room, the schoolgirl witch knelt by her open door. She set her bundle behind her, and then her purse on top of it. Only then did Marisa peek around the corner.

Someone scattered her sheets, flipped her mattress, and flung her magpie collection of Moriya hamlet mementos across the floor. The mess reminded Marisa of her cottage after the nasty magical mishaps caused whenever Alice tried to improve Marisa's spells. But Nanami prohibited any magic stronger than a spell card inside her saloon. The petite witch drew in a deep breath and padded around the corner.

A solid weight rammed the schoolgirl witch's midsection, slamming her against the wall. An unseen hand ground Marisa's face into the wall, while another caught her hand holding her trigram furnace and clubbed it against the doorframe's edge. Marisa's favorite weapon dropped from her numbed fingers.

"Where is the book?" her attacker hissed. Hot breath fogged in Marisa's ear as a hand grabbed Marisa's hair near the scalp.

But the schoolgirl witch remained silent, her attention focuses on her shoes.

A boot lashed out at Marisa's foot. The schoolgirl witch stepped over it and drove her heel into the ankle. Her assailant toppled over, yanking the petite witch to the floor.

Marisa rolled away, flailing to get her fingers on her trigram furnace. But her unseen foe yanked hard on the witch's Rapunzel hair, dragging her back towards the fight. Marisa grunted as her attacker fell and smothered her.

The petite blonde squirmed and jabbed and rolled, driven by instincts honed by ten thousand fights with her older brothers. She seized a handful of a familiar brown jumper and flipped her attacker away. Now free, Marisa scrambled to her feet and faced her foe, a wasp-waisted spiderette crowned with straw-colored braids.

"Not bad." Akikonomu Kurodani wiped a trickle of blood from her lip. "You must have brothers. Only a little sister wrestles so viciously."

Marisa searched for her trigram furnace with the corner of her eye. "Tell Yamame to stop wasting my time with small fry."

Akikonomu flashed her fangs in a predatory grin. "Why should she have all the fun?" She lunged at the petite witch.

Marisa dove for the wall, scooped up her trigram furnace, and rolled into a crouch. An actinic glow rid the bedroom of shadows as the witch aimed her furnace at Akikonomu. But the spiderette's lunge was a feint, and Akikonomu fled out the door.

The Rapunzel witch scurried out the door. She glimpsed Akikonomu's crown of braids bouncing down the stairs. Marisa vaulted the railing, flattening the spiderette below. The two blondes tumbled down the stairway and sprawled in a heap in the stairwell.

Akikonomu staggered to her feet first and broke for the door, weaving around the dining room tables. Marisa grimaced and rolled to her stomach. With one eye closed, the petite witch trained her furnace at the fleeing spiderette and drew on her magic.

The spiderette spy crashed through the saloon's swinging doors, chased by a sparking beam of blazing light.

Marisa crumpled to the floor and closed her eyes, waiting for the purple afterimage splotches to fade away. She soaked in the sudden comfort of the hardwood floor.

Moments later, a heavy stomp thundered through the ceiling.

Marisa roused herself from the floor and staggered up the stairs, clinging to the railing. The petite witch covered the first-floor railing with the bowl of her trigram furnace. Any spiderette foolish enough to linger would bathe in the soothing glow of Master Spark.

But the only person visible in the hallway was the salt-and-pepper figure of her father, cradling an armful of electric purple, bespoke tailoring, and ribboned tresses. Inside the neat bale, Patchouli Knowledge cast a glance over her shoulder, then hid her blush in Mr. Kirisame's chest.

Marisa rolled her eyes. Then, as though her father and his newest squeeze were never there, the schoolgirl witch marched past, retrieved her bundle and purse, and slammed her bedroom door behind her.

* * *

In a corner of the Wandering Eye's dining room, Marisa tapped a stack of cards against the hardwood table, then dealt five on top of the fanned deck in front of her. With a glower, Marisa examined the hand.

Four of a kind, Non-Dimensional Laser.

Casting a moue, the witch flicked the failure away. The remaining cards in her hand returned to a stack curing over her trigram furnace.

Marisa pushed back from the table, nursing her bruises with a bottle of red wine. After nearly a week in Sanae's hand-me-down sailor dress, it was a relief to return to the proper frilled apron and fashionable dress of a cute witch. But the twin ambushes of the spiderette and Patchouli kept the magical girl on edge. After downing another swig of the dry wine, she surveyed the saloon, idly swirling the bottle in her hand.

While the dinner rush was still hours away, a bashful wolf  _tengu_ male in scarlet over white  _kasane_  robes sought Reisen's favor on the opposite side of the dining room. The bunny nurse, once more a matchmaker, turned her ruby eyes upon Marisa. The schoolgirl witch shook her head and draped her thick braid over her shoulder. Marisa then Reisen's gaze as it cut to the stairwell.

Patchouli glided down the stairs like a forget-me-not petal on the breeze. Marisa plucked a spell card from the tray and waved the librarian over with the glowing card. As Patchouli approached, Nanami shoved a fistful of coins at an unseen figure behind the bar.

Marisa examined the librarian's uncharacteristically natty dress. Instead of her normal rumpled nightgown, Patchouli flaunted a tailored purple jacket with a silk satin sheen, drawn tight over a matching gored skirt and a high collar white shirt. "When did you raid Mary Poppins' wardrobe?"

"First impressions are crucial in business," Patchouli simpered. She sat and folded her hands on the table.

"You ran the old 'Crash into Hello' routine on my father." Marisa's spell card smoldered, then faded.

Patchouli's grin widened. "The classics still work."

"I get it, you read a romance novel once. That doesn't make you an expert." Marisa flicked the fizzled spell card across the table.

"Just like wearing a hat doesn't make a girl a witch?"

Marisa closed her eyes and counted until her temper faded. "Please tell me this is nothing more than a convoluted scheme to get your books back."

Patchouli cast a moue and lowered her eyes. "Right now, it's only business. I hoped-" The alchemist sighed. "He's very devoted to the memory of your mother."

Marisa shrugged. That was always her father's problem. In her mind's eye, the petite witch found herself once more leaving her family's house with all her worldly goods on her back. A long pull of red wine banished the raw memory. "When did you decide to throw yourself at the old fool?"

"He wrote me first, to learn more about the Golden Room. As he should." Patchouli said with growing confidence. "Ninety percent of the work for a treasure hunt is in the library, and no one in Gensokyo knows her way around a library better than me."

Marisa swallowed her retort with another sip. Despite the alchemist's obsessive vigilance, there were still a dozen unguarded passages into the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library.

"As soon as he told me that he saved every one of my letters, I added a couple drops of perfume to my signature. And when he confessed to saving the envelopes, I sealed each new letter with a kiss. I even told him so when I signed my letters with 'SWAK.'" Patchouli deflated. "It's a shame no one here knows the old courting games."

"Don't get your hopes up. He'll only disappoint you."

Patchouli leveled her frostiest glare at Marisa. "You should treat your father with respect."

"I've heard it before." Marisa waved away Patchouli's advice. " _'When your father is alive, observe his will.'_ "

" _'Honor your father and your mother so that your days may be long in the land.'_ "

"Wait until you know him better." Marisa raised the bottle to her lips and waited. Crestfallen, she looked down the neck, then upended the green-glass bottle over the floor. Only a single red drop fell. With a pout, the witch set it on the table. "Tell me why the old man is crazy about this Golden Room."

Patchouli froze, her mouth agape, as she stared at the schoolgirl witch. "Didn't you go searching for it? Everyone said that was why you hired that team of  _kappa_  miners to excavate those geysers on Youkai Mountain." The librarian coughed demurely as it was Marisa's turn to stare. "I guess we can rule out that rumor.

"The Golden Room is the last missing part of Abbess Hijiri's ship. When she first appeared in Gensokyo, Nue claimed it was the cabin where the Jeweled Pagoda of Bishamonten rested for the full thousand years of the abbess's imprisonment. She also bragged that she had seen it fall from the ship." Patchouli shrugged. "Everyone thought she was trying to coax free drinks from the boys. At least until Ichirin, a  _yamawaro_ , and a  _kasha_  backed her story."

"Funny, isn't it, how often everyone is wrong?" Marisa dealt out another round. Full house, Master Sparks over Sungrazers. A dead spider's hand.

"Your father wrote exactly that in his first letter." Patchouli grew animated, gesturing wildly as she spoke. "See, everyone focused their search on where the  _Star Lotus_  burst from the mountain. Not your father. He reasoned that the earthquakes, the  _kappa_  miners, and the Moriya shrine's reactor construction shifted the earth enough to pull the Golden Room into the heart of Youkai Mountain. But he needed help to track the changes to the mountain's caves since the abbess was unsealed. So, as the preeminent researcher in Gensokyo, of course, I said yes."

"You just wanted a pen pal." Marisa muttered.

But Patchouli no longer listened. Instead, her face lit up as her attention drifted over Marisa's shoulder.

Marisa swept up the fan of spell cards and darted for the stairs. But her father's hand fell on her shoulder, and she was well and truly caught.

"You might have learned that if you weren't avoiding me for the last three days." Mr. Kirisame guided his daughter back to her seat.

"I've avoided you for far longer than that." Marisa dropped petulantly into her chair and crossed her arms. "What other secrets are you keeping from me?

"Come to dinner with Miss Knowledge and me tonight, and you might find out." Mr. Kirisame sat next to his daughter.

Marisa glowered, sizing the gussied-up librarian for a proper hexing. "Only if you take me with you on your next hunt for the Golden Room. Youkai Mountain is too dangerous to explore alone—or with Patchi." The  _danmaku_  witch gave her deck of spell cards a quick riffle shuffle.

"We'll see. The  _tengu_  might not let us leave before the mountain's constant tremors hide the Golden Room once more." Mr. Kirisame stroked his chin. "But there might be another way."

"Those puppies are pushovers." Marisa danced a spell card across her knuckles. "So when do we leave?"

The salt-and-pepper shopkeeper turned from the prodigal witch. "I'm sorry, Miss Knowledge, but I lost your letters along with my journal on the mountain. I only hope that those earth spiders have not found them yet."

Marisa covered a bruise on her shoulder with her hand. "They're still looking."

But the petite blonde was overlooked as Patchouli took Mr. Kirisame's hand. "Maybe the  _tengu_  found them in their investigation. And if not, I can always scry for your journal with my magic."

"Thank you. I'm sure your magic will be most helpful."

Marisa dropped the object in her hand. A red mist blocked her vision. She was the magician of the family, not this purple pretender. And her daddy never, ever said those words to her, not even when she tried so hard to be helpful. No, it was always "Listen to your mother." The witch slammed the table. As the silverware clattered, a seven-point star circumscribed by actinic light spiraled from the spell cards in her hand. The air crackled—

"Hey, I'm right behind you!" a flirty voice cooed in her ear.

Marisa whirled around and found soft lips pressed against hers. As her magic circle blinked away, the petite blonde shoved hard against the kisser.

Koishi Komeiji staggered back, staring quizzically at Marisa. Pink flooded the silvery  _satori's_  cheeks. "I'm sorry, Marisa, I thought you were a boy." The Yellow Rose of Youkai Mountain tapped her head with her knuckles and stuck out her tongue. A coin fell from her fist.

Marisa knocked over her chair as she lunged for Koishi. But the silvery  _satori_  laughed as she skipped out of The Wandering Eye, with the schoolgirl witch on her heels.


	8. The Trials of Marisa Kirisame

Inside the stone storehouse that served as Moriya hamlet's precinct, Momiji Inubashiri sat at her desk and glanced over a sheaf of reports at her next appointment. "Enter."

The door opened, and a pair of solemn tengu shield maidens led Marisa before Momiji. The petite witch greeted the tengu sergeant's stern visage with a smile.

Momiji set aside her paperwork. "This is the third time this afternoon you were caught outside The Wandering Eye. Give me one reason why we shouldn't frogmarch you back to the Forest of Magic?"

"Because I'll be back tomorrow, and this time I'll bring Alice with me." Marisa laughed as Momiji massaged her temples. The witch raised her manacled hands and tapped her cheek with a finger. "Say, if you're here, who's keeping an eye on your wall? Who's watching the earth spiders?

"It is not  _tengu_  policy to discuss our patrols," Hatate Himekaidou piped up from her perch in the corner. The twintailed crow  _tengu_  typed idly on her phone.

"What's the squab doing here?" Marisa brushed a stray strand of her Rapunzel hair over an ear. "Tell her to come around to my right. That's my good side."

Hatate glowered at Marisa. Her camera phone flashed, then the  _tengu_  reporter returned to her typing.

"I'm asking the questions here," Momiji growled. "I don't have time for you to cause an incident or the people to chase you around the hamlet. Especially now that this Moon Maid is running free. I should banish you to the Moriya shrine, but I'm certain you'll be back in this office within the hour."

Marisa rubbed her wrists. "Give me some credit."

"Fine, call it an hour and a half. You aren't as sneaky as you think."

"I got past your wall."

"You followed a fairy." Hatate kicked her legs as she laughed.

Momiji ignored the snickering reporter. "This is for your protection. Half the mountain thinks you are a rabbit spy."

Marisa threw back her head and laughed. "Byakuren's the one running around in an unzipped leather catsuit."

"You spent three months at Eternity Manor."

"Learning herblore. A witch cannot live on mushrooms alone," Marisa said.

"Between your studies, Kaguya's wedding, and Mokou taking over the shrine, the rabbits' influence in Gensokyo is growing," Hatate said.

Marisa shrugged, covering her wrists. "Tewi will overstep her bounds and start an incident. I'll slap her back in line. After all, I can go anywhere during an incident, like when a clutch of earth spiders tries to starve my father."

"It doesn't matter," Momiji growled. "Three of the youkai clans want you punished for intruding on  _tengu_  and  _kappa_  lands. By agreement of Lady Akyuu and the Great Tengu, you will stay under house arrest in The Wandering Eye for five more days."

Marisa's grin grew wider. Five days? Such a curious number. And the same as the time remaining on her daddy's best guess on the Golden Room's position. "Do I get an errand  _tengu_? How about that burly wolf boy who first caught me? I need a cupboard full of girlish necessities soon." The shield maidens at the witch's side choked back giggles.

Momiji scowled at the  _tengu_  troops and they fell silent. "During daylight, you may visit the bazaar and the Moriya shrine. Anything else?"

"My father left his ledger on the mountain."

"We swept the site clean and returned everything we found to Mr. Kirisame."

"See for yourself," Hatate cut in. The twintailed  _tengu_  pressed a key, then flipped her cellphone around. A slideshow flickered across the palm-sized screen, too small for Marisa, but not for keen-eyed Momiji.

"Thank you, Hatate." Momiji scooped up her paperwork.

Marisa pursed her lips. If the squab's spirit photography was real and the  _tengu_  and the spiders didn't have her daddy's book, who did? Or, more likely, who was lying about not finding it?

Momiji mulled over her paperwork. "Take her back to her room."

"No need." The handcuffs dropped from Marisa's wrists, landing at her feet. A hairpin remained lodged in the lock. The Rapunzel witch dipped into a curtsy. "I'll show myself out."

* * *

Marisa gawked through the storefront windows of The Wandering Eye. The witch's heart sank as she spied on her father as he poured over tengu broadsheets alongside Patchouli in the dining room. That should be her helping her daddy research his treasure hunt. And before her mother banned magic in the house, it was.

Mr. Kirisame glanced up from his newspaper and met Marisa's eyes. He beckoned for his daughter to return.

Marisa's cheeks grew red. She exhaled sharply, gathered her skirts, and marched into the dining room. The witch stopped at her father's table. "The  _tengu_  said they don't have your book." She planted her hands on her hips. "And we're stuck here for five more days."

"That will give us enough time to reproduce my findings." Mr. Kirisame spread his paper across the table. "Miss Knowledge has been an invaluable help. I hope to take her with me when I go searching again."

Patchouli glowed as she transcribed notes into a fresh journal.

"When's that?" Marisa asked.

"Six days, if the  _tengu_  don't change their mind." Mr. Kirisame traced a column of text with a finger.

"What about the store?"

"Your brothers will keep it open until I return." Mr. Kirisame brushed aside the broadsheet as Marisa whirled around and walked towards the café doors. "Where are you going?"

"To find some extra hands," Marisa called over her shoulder. " _We'll_  need the help on the mountain."

* * *

A flock of Celestial maidens scattered as Marisa stomped out of Moriya's general store. She crumpled a tattered telegram in her hand. Since when did Alice need an entire week to wash her hair? Someone needed to yank that doll out of her house—

The petite witch collided hard with an unseen wall and sprawled backward into the dust. She winced and rubbed her hip. A handsome Celestial man stood in the road, a living version of the marble statues that filled Yukari's travel pictures.

Then again, Alice could stay on the shelf a little longer.

Marisa hid her face behind the wide brim of her hat. She pinched her cheeks and bit the back of her lips, bringing a rosy glow to each. She glanced up, flashing her most coquettish smile.

To Marisa's horror, Sakuya hooked her arm around the Celestial idol and pressed herself tightly against his arm. As the elegant maid dragged her prize towards the teahouse, Marisa pouted. Not only did Sakuya snare what the witch wanted, the perfect maid would not want to muss her lace exploring an underground cavern.

* * *

As soon as Marisa's railway car settled on the heights of the Moriya Shrine, Sanae greeted the Rapunzel witch with a holy  _ofuda_  charm pressed to the blonde's forehead.

"Go away. I'm grounded because of you." The Wonder Girl shoved Marisa back inside the railway car. "Lady Kanako's arrangements with the  _tengu_  are now in jeopardy."

"Let me talk to Reimu." Marisa squirmed free of Sanae, but the Wonder Girl slammed the door to the railway car. With an ominous click, the door latched shut.

"She's staying here until she decides to either marry Lord Fujiwara or spurn him entirely. Save for incidents, of course." Sanae darted to the side of the railway platform and threw open the handbrake lever. The capstan wheel groaned as it carried Marisa back towards the Moriya hamlet station. The Wonder Girl cupped her hands to her mouth. "And don't even think of starting one!"

* * *

Marisa shoved her way through the swinging doors of The Wandering Eye. As soon as the café doors clattered against the walls, Reisen pushed away from the table known as The Matchmaker's Throne and confronted the cute witch.

"The Celestial gossip queens say you are treasure hunting." The matchmaker drew her bunny-eared pistol. "I want no part of it."

Marisa threw up her hands. A spell card glowed in each of her palms. "Even after living with your kind for three months, I still don't have you rabbits figured out. Hidden treasure should be right up your alley, especially after all the romance of Kaguya's wedding." She grew pensive. "Say, how did Yori find that dragon's pearl that won him Kaguya?"

Reisen's eye flared ruby red as she stared down Marisa through her pistol's bunny-eared sights.

"Suit yourself, Honey Bunny." The witch backed away, laughing as Reisen thumbed the hammer. "Ease up, Udonge."

"It's Reisen to you," the bunnygirl snapped. But she lowered her pistol and returned to her throne.

Two charred cards fell from Marisa's hands. She dashed up the stairs. If the incident solvers would not help her, it was time to call on her more disreputable contacts.

* * *

Huddled over the counter of a  _soba_  shop, Maria raised a glass of  _soba sochu_  and toasted the owner with the weak buckwheat whiskey. Behind her, a bamboo curtain swayed in the mountain breeze, trapping the mouthwatering aromas of the broth of vigor inside Nemuno Sakata's  _soba_  shop. The savory mix of shaved pork jerky, bacon, and shiitake mushrooms drew lines of carnivore  _youkai_ and human gourmands to a stove cart under an awning of Moriya's general store, panting for a choice between hot  _soba_  soup and cold noodles with dipping sauce. Only a single red lantern advertised the dive's location—and the meeting with Marisa's next contact.

The metronomic chop of Nemuno's cleaver cutting  _soba_  noodles filled the alcove, heard only by the five souls at the counter, including Kagerou Imaizumi and a pair of wolf  _tengu_  men. As Kagerou led her white wolf suitors in a boisterous cheer, Marisa's contact turned away from her plate.

"No, not this time." Nitori Kawashiro slurped her noodles with gusto. "Every time you get our hopes up, we find nothing more than a pile of sand. Last time, you even had us digging through toxic spirit sludge."

"I was digging alongside you." Marisa hid her grimace behind a sip of  _soba sochu_. "I didn't know about the toxic part. Thankfully, Kasen stopped us."

Nitori shrugged and dipped her noodles in the pork  _dashi_  sauce. "I make more here at Moriya's bazaar than you ever paid me to dig holes." The  _kappa_  gadgeteer held out a palm towards Marisa and waggled her fingers. "Show me the gold first. Real gold. Then my  _kappa_  girls will be more than willing to excavate your find."

"All I have is a lead." Marisa twirled her chopsticks as she waited for Nemuno to ladle noodles from boiling water.

"In that case, your best bet is Satori. If she's even willing to talk to you." Nitori slurped another bite of noodles. "Good luck."

"It was Koishi's fault." Marisa gave thanks as Nemuno slid her a bowl of mushroom  _soba_  soup.

Nitori shrugged, and both girls turned to the serious business of eating. Marisa attacked her soup with relish. After days of The Wandering Eye's pancakes, roast beef, and beer, the cute witch longed for more traditional fare. She closed her eyes and sighed as she bit into a savory mushroom. Too soon, Marisa's bowl was empty. The magical girl pondered seconds over another  _soba sochu_.

A loud crack interrupted Marisa's musings—and Nemuno's knifework. Kagerou stormed through the bamboo curtain, abandoning the two wolf  _tengu_  men at the bar. One bore the imprint of her palm across his cheek. After a moment's confusion, he dropped a fistful of coins into Nemuno's tray and chased after the werewolf belle.

Before their seats could cool, a chocolate-eared mouse  _youkai_  in red pushed through the bamboo curtain. "Yakumo  _soba_ , please!" Akane Yakumo chirped as she perched on her stool.

Marisa nudged Nitori in the ribs. "You didn't tell me about a secret menu." The  _kappa_  shrugged and slurped her noodles.

Nemuno nodded and set a pot of oil on the stove. While it heated to a boil, the mountain tribeswoman cubed a block of tofu.

Akane squealed happily and patted her pockets. The mouseling's eyes grew wide, as her patting grew frantic. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a handful of sand. The little mouseling familiar teared up and dropped from her stool.

Marisa's heart broke. "Akane, come here." The mouseling pleaded as she approached. Marisa sighed and dropped a cascade of coins into Nemuno's tray. "I'll pay for your meal, but just this once."

"Thank you, Aunt Marisa." Akane bounced in glee, unaware that her tail whipped into Nitori's back. The gadgeteer glared at the mouseling.

"It's 'Miss.' I'm still a girl." Marisa tousled Akane's hair. "You can tell me the truth. A fairy gave you that money, right?"

The mouseling nodded.

"Big girls don't take money from fairies because it's always a prank. Now, while Mrs. Sakata cooks your  _soba_ , you need to tell your aunt what just happened."

"Auntie Yukari?" Akane hoped.

"No, Aunt Ran." The little mouseling sighed dejectedly. "Go on, your  _soba_  will be ready when you get back." Akane trudged out of the  _soba_  shop.

"You know she'll pull that stunt again," Nitori grumbled, rubbing her back.

"Not after Ran sets her right. Besides, that was real fairy dust." Marisa hopped off her stool. "There's enough change for another  _soba sochu_  on me. Come find me when you change your mind."

"Find the gold first."

With a wave, Marisa stepped through the curtain. The evening wind whisked away the  _soba_  shop's swelter from her skin. The witch shivered, rubbing her arms as she rounded the corner towards The Wandering Eye.

A peal of magical thunder drew goosebumps to her flesh. Marisa flattened herself against the general store and peered around the corner.

The crowd in  _kasane_  chrysanthemum parted, scrambling for the sidewalks. A star-spangled fairy sprinted through their wake, chased by a cat  _youkai_. The Doomkitten pounced, knocking Clownpiece into a tangle of arms and legs. But the star-spangled fairy proved too slippery, worming free from the dogpile. Her white butterfly wings blurred as she darted wildly through Moriya's single road, with the Doomkitten an angry orange streak on her heels.

As black hexes rippled around her, Clownpiece swooped around the corner and ducked inside Marisa's shadow. "Help! She's going to eat me!"

"Nonsense, you're too scrawny." Marisa stepped out of the way as a curse smashed into the general store's siding, spraying accursed frost everywhere.

The Doomkitten barreled around the corner, noticed Marisa, and then tried to skid to a stop. Instead, she tumbled yowling into the back of a  _kappa's_  stall, spilling boxes and curios.

Marisa grabbed the harlequin fairy by the collar. "You must be the one who gave Akane fairy gold."

Clownpiece gave Marisa her most winsome smile. "Mousey should have known better."

"So should you." Marisa grabbed the fairy's chin and turned her head towards the tail thrashing in the  _kappa's_  stall. "That's her 'mother.'"

The Doomkitten rose from the pile of scattered knickknacks. "Hand her over." The air around the Doomkitten crackled with curses as she prowled towards Marisa.

"Apologize," Marisa whispered. "Now."

Clownpiece fell to her knees, helped by Marisa's firm hand. As the harlequin fairy babbled for forgiveness, Marisa held her in place with a boot on her ankle.

"I said, hand her over." A billowing nimbus of black curses gathered around the Doomkitten.

Marisa shifted her weight, and Clownpiece's apologies grew shriller and more fervent. "Reisen is searching for you."

The cloud around the Doomkitten blinked away. The cat  _youkai_  yowled, her fur standing on end. She clawed her way up the general store's wall.

"Scat, cat!" Marisa hollered.

From the safety of the rooftop, Chen hissed, "This isn't over." The kitten turned tail and scampered across the roof.

Marisa raised her boot. Clownpiece hopped to her feet and stuck out her tongue at the Doomkitten's back.

The witch slapped the hell fairy upside her head. "Sunny taught you better manners. What was her first lesson?"

"Don't get caught?" Clownpiece quailed under the witch's glare. "I mean, 'always keep an eye on Star?'"

"Forget it," Marisa said. She grew embarrassed by her next unwitchy words. "You should know better than to pull a prank like that."

The star-spangled fairy grew puzzled. "Why? I can outrace that witch kitten. I ran from worse in Hell."

"Worse than Reimu?"

"She needs to go home!" the harlequin fairy snapped. At once, Clownpiece covered her mouth, then her confidence swelled. "But she's mooning over her silver god, so I can do what I want. Miss Sanae won't stop me, Miss Mokou can't, and you are too nice. Now, if the Moon Maid ever came after me…"

Astonished, Marisa stared at the blonde fairy. Just the week before, the witch thrashed the plans for a fairy war out of Clownpiece's mind. And now, Marisa was too nice? She shook her head as the harlequin fairy prattled on.

A glint from the roof of The Wandering Eye caught the witch's magpie gaze. A woman stood among the shingles, an open duster wrapped around her corseted dress. But a gleaming glass globe painted to match the full moon sat where her face should have been. She pointed at Marisa, and the evening filled with  _danmaku_.


	9. The Glass Mask

Atop the flat wooden roof of the Wandering Eye saloon, the Moon Maid pointed a gloved finger at Marisa. The specter's glass globe mask remained expressionless as an actinic storm flashed from her hand.

Marisa shoved Clownpiece into the lee of the general store, then leapt after her.

A white-capped  _danmaku_  wave rolled through Moriya's street, sweeping over the belles, the beaus, and the bunnies who gawked at the domed silhouette of the Moon Maid.

"What are you doing?" demanded Clownpiece. She squealed as the wave of neon sparks broke against the storefront. As the spent  _danmaku_  shot crackled away, the harlequin fairy cowered against the store.

Marisa ignored the harlequin fairy. Instead, the magical girl's expert eye focused on the remaining  _danmaku_  surging past the store. As the flying embers swept into the alley, they slowed until they hung motionless in the air. Marisa shoved Clownpiece further into the alley. "Run."

Instead of following the fleeing fairy, Marisa stood fast.

A chime sang, and the neon-flecked cloud hurled itself at Marisa. The magic shot kicked up sprays of dirt around her, but the witch remained still, even as an ember brushed her skirt's hem.

A smattering of applause for the magical demonstration filled the hamlet, quickly drowned out by the wails from those now wearing singed  _kasane_  silk.

Marisa pulled a wand from the depths of her witch's hat, then prowled towards the main thoroughfare. Boxes crashed behind the Rapunzel witch. She whirled around in a curtain of golden curls, a harsh curse on her lips.

Clownpiece scrambled out of the shadows, clawing at the ground as she darted towards Marisa. The blonde fairy ducked behind the cute witch and clung to Marisa's skirts. For on the hell fairy's heels was the silent specter of the Moon Maid!

Marisa advanced towards the corseted figure in the wind-whipped coat, dragging Clownpiece along with each step. "Cute light show, Sekibanki, but the game's up now." The magical girl paused and considered her reflection in the Moon Maid's perfect glass globe. As the moonlight specter drew closer, Marisa pondered the woman behind the glass mask. "No, you aren't her."

As a  _rokurokubi_ , Sekibanki loved to play on the tale of the Headless Horseman. Wearing a false face was distasteful to her. That left a handful of women who would dare use a moon motif, and most of those remained besieged on the moon. That globe was too small for Reisen and her bunnygirl ears, the Moon Maid's silk dress was too exquisite for Sakuya's budget, and Eirin veiled her plans, never her face.

"Kaguya," Marisa guessed. "Does Yori know about your new clothes?"

Clownpiece shrieked as the Moon Maid hurled a bottle. Glass shattered at Marisa's feet, engulfing Clownpiece and her in a pillar of acrid chemical smoke and blinding flashpaper confetti. Marisa broke free from the hell fairy's iron grasp and staggered out of the smokescreen.

A wall of  _danmaku_  shot shredded the cloud of smoke. Marisa threw herself out of the way and rolled to her feet. Behind her, the searing shot carved grooves into the side of the general store. Save for Clownpiece trembling on the ground, the alley was empty. After retrieving her wand and her hand from the ground, the blonde witch sprang into the air and floated over the Moriya hamlet.

She hated flying without her broom, a most unwitchy act. How else would people know she was a witch? After all, wide-brimmed hats were back in fashion. But only a proper with was crazy enough to chase down a  _danmaku_  killer.

Behind the general store, a glimmer of silver streaked towards a line of  _kappa_  storehouses. Marisa flipped over and swooped head first in pursuit. Lines of  _danmaku_  from her wand kicked up dirt around the fleeing figure in a flaring duster jacket.

The silvery specter of the Moon Maid twisted as she ran, spraying  _danmaku_  at Marisa. Then the woman in the glass mask leapt into the air. Her mask and her shot remained focused on Marisa as she flew blind through the storehouse maze. As the two women pelted each other with magic, they slalomed through the boulevard, around shop carts, upended boxes, and scattering bystanders.

Wolf _tengu_  shield maidens burst out of the hamlet's tea house, catching the Moon Maid's  _danmaku_  ricochets on the boss of their painted shields. The wolves bounded in pursuit, herding the silver specter and the Rapunzel witch towards the ropeway platform—and the sheer drop beyond.

Marisa slipped under the Moon Maid's silver barrage. She answered with a Master Spark. The recoil from the brilliant beam halted the magical girl in mid-air, then pushed her backward. The Moon Maid jinked away from the blazing light and ducked behind the ropeway's capstan.

The beam faded. Marisa slingshotted around the creaking turnstone, flushing the Moon Maid out into the open. The silver specter soared over the edge of the cliff, her coat rippling as she blazed away at Marisa with staccato bursts of  _danmaku_  flak, until, without a word, she plummeted to the forest valley below.

Marisa dove after her. Downdrafts from the mountain buffeted the magical girl as she spiraled around clouds of neon shot. The fire slackened and a white puffball cloud rose towards her.

With her eyes clenched shut, Marisa plunged through the acrid hot smoke. As a sudden breeze cooled her face, the magical girl hovered below the rising plume and wiped her eyes clean.

Silver flashed at the base of the cliff. Ever the magical magpie, Marisa swooped towards the light and found the mouth of a lava tube cave. A man might stoop to pass through the rounded stone tunnel, but the petite witch fit comfortably inside, hat and all.

She padded through the lava tube, her elemental furnace casting a hellish glow against the granite. The cave was unremarkable, just like the dozen or so that Marisa regularly gathered mushrooms from. But none held a mirrorball  _danmaku_  cheat lurking behind a bend in the granite tunnel. The magical girl examined every nook of the cave as she crept ever deeper inside, searching for the glimmer of the Moon Maid's globe.

Then she felt a minute tug against her leg. Marisa's hackles rose as she looked at her foot. A gossamer line stretched taut against her shin. Before she could ease free from the trip line, the silk strand snapped. A heavy white blanket slammed into the petite witch, pinning her against the cold stone wall.

Furious, Marisa thrashed inside the cocoon of sticky white silk until the shroud wound tight around her body. Then, she tried to claw through the threads, but her nails slipped on the silk, finding no purchase.

The rhythmic clatter of steel on stone echoed faintly through the tunnel. Marisa strained her ears as she sawed more frantically against her bonds. Low murmurs of conversation gradually grew clear.

"The survey team found nothing," a man said. His voice was firm, but with a hint of foppishness and a slight sibilance to his S's. Was he one of Satori's pets, kept to herself by the enigmatic underground queen? At the moment, it didn't matter; Marisa would kiss Kogasa's umbrella on the lips if it could free her from her cocoon.

Aristocratic venom dripped from a woman's reply. "Akikonomu is no scholar. The shopkeeper's tally book is not enough."

Marisa hissed at her spiderette rival's name.

"We wouldn't need to bother if you would let me woo the bride promised to me, Aunt Kuroko."

"Not even Yamame would move so openly against the Hakurei Shrine. Fortunately, Grandmother Spider has decreed another path," the woman said. "We will live under the sky once more, Hachitarou. Have faith in the weavings of Grandmother Spider."

Long shadows reached from the darkness towards Marisa. The magical girl shivered, then groped blindly through bundled silk for a spell card.

"Grandmother Spider might have promised you gold and freedom. I want my bride."

"Find me the Golden Room and you will be free to do what you want. We all will."

The clack of metal on rock grew louder. Shadows became wasp-waisted silhouettes, one tapered towards the waist and the other an hourglass. Marisa forgot about spell cards and instead drew upon her light magic. A dim glow settled on her cocoon, but the granite wicked away any heat from her spells.

The spiderette cocked an ear towards Marisa. "I heard silk rustling. Something blundered into one of our traps."

"I do hope it's not one of Satori's animal friends. I hate when I must let prey go free."

A woman in a black Chinese dress stepped into the light. Her resemblance to Yamame was vivid, perhaps an older sister or an aunt. The woman adjusted the crossed hairpins in her blonde bun and sneered at Marisa. "Oh, it's a fairy."

Marisa bit her tongue. Every spiderette that the witch met knew just how to endear herself to Marisa.

The spiderette's companion joined her at her side. Marisa recognized the telltale crispness of a fellow clotheshorse, particularly in the knife creases of his vest and slacks. The magical girl longed to slap the leer off his face. From the purple bruise as livid on his cheek as a port wine stain, another girl recently enjoyed that pleasure.

"I've seen this one before. At the moon princess's wedding?" Hachitarou ogled the second skin of Marisa's glowing cocoon.

"That's the black-and-white witch that swatted Yamame." Kuruko glowered as she spoke the spiderette's name. "Pay attention. Her bright magic should have been a clue."

The dapper spider poked her with the tip of his swagger stick. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Silk burns, and it would be a shame to scar such a pretty face."

Hachitarou brushed a strand of gold from Marisa's cheek. She recoiled from the spider's touch, then snapped at his fingers. The dapper spider waggled a finger in the witch's face.

Marisa continued to draw on her magic, shifting away from light and heat spells for black hexes that would curl a Doomkitten's tail. She reared back, a perfect cutting remark on her lips—

Kuroko rocked the witch's jaw with an open hand. The air crackled as Marisa's spells fizzled.

"Hush now." Hachitarou cradled her chin in his soft hand. "We all know what happens if you speak."

Marisa jerked her head free. "I'm not that kind of witch."

"Everyone knows you lie." Kuroko backhanded Marisa.

Marisa's cheek burned with the imprint of Kuroko's hand. She met unflinching the aristocratic spiderette's gaze. The black witch etched every line of Kuroko's face into her memory.

Kuroko recognized the silent promise in Marisa's eyes. Indignant, the spiderette raised her hand again.

Hachitarou caught her arm. "Don't rob Akikonomu of her sport." With his other hand, the dapper spider pressed a wad of sticky silk over Marisa's mouth.

"Remember who is in charge here." Kuroko ripped her hand free and tugged on her black dress. She crossed her arms and glowered haughtily at Marisa. "I've sullied my hands enough on this merchant's daughter. Let Akikonomu have her." She turned a shoulder to Marisa and flounced a few steps away.

But Hachitarou leaned closer to Marisa until all she could see was his citrine eyes. "That's where I recognize you from. You have your father's eyes, Miss Kirisame." Marisa's skin crawled as the dapper spider’s face lit with the glow of inspiration.

Hachitarou slipped Marisa's arm free from the swaddling silk. With the grace of a courtier, the spider raised her hand to his lips. Marisa shivered as he brushed her skin with his lips. A relaxing warmth crept up her arm.

"I should thank you for the new opportunity you have just given my people." Hachitarou wiped away a pair of scarlet pinpricks from the back of Marisa's hand. The dapper spider chuckled as Marisa screamed muffled curses into her bonds. "For now, I must bid you good night."

Darkness claimed the Rapunzel witch.

* * *

 

The chime of dripping water roused Marisa inside her swaddling silk swathes. A naked light bulb dangled from a red granite ceiling, shining with the full fury of a Final Spark. The Rapunzel witch blinked back the glare and found herself in a bed of stark white cave coral, still cocooned in silk.

Her head swam, and her breath fogged hot against the silk gag. From a dozen encounters with purple deceiver mushrooms, Marisa recognized the familiar stinging needles crawling under her skin as poisoning. No, not quite, that cad of a spider bit her. An envenoming.

Unbidden, three months of Eirin's apothecary tutorage flooded through her mind:

Burdock tea to clean the blood, and rust water to rebuild it. But what was next? Comfrey root, horseradish, sassafras, or yarrow?

Marisa shook her head as rote botanical lists came unbidden to her lips. She closed her eyes and waited for her calm to return.

She woke up some time later, clear-headed but feverish, staring up at the light bulb. She turned her head and blinked away purple afterimages. As her vision cleared, she squinted through a flower patch of gypsum cave coral at a silk shroud streaked with lavender. A gold crescent moon ornament fastened the cocoon shut.

The Rapunzel witch's mouth went dry as she gasped for air. When did the spiders capture Patchouli? Worse still, how long until Remilia Scarlet find out? Not even a mountain would protect the spiders from the vampiress’s rage.

Then the magical girl froze as icy dread seized her. Since arriving at Moriya hamlet, Patchouli kept an arm looped around her father's. Marisa steeled herself and turned her head.

Her heart fell. The ashen face of her father stared out from a cocoon lashed upright to a lava column. She blinked away tears, then her breath caught in her throat.

For behind Marisa's father loomed the glass mask of the Moon Maid!


	10. The Night Witch

Inside the shadows of the granite chamber, the glass globe mask of the Moon Maid glimmered.

Marisa squirmed inside her spider silk prison. Unbidden, a beam of coherent light lanced out from the cocoon at the corseted woman who lured her into the spiders' underground trap. Shadows fled from the miniature Spark—along with the silvery specter of the Moon Maid.

The glare of magic faded, and the chamber filled with an eye-watering sulfurous stench fouler than burning hair. To Marisa's surprise, the silk cocoon shriveled and split from her shoulder to her hip. The petite witch grabbed hold of the edges of the shrinking silk sheets and pulled, widening the tear.

Her muscles strained as cords of silk stretched and snapped. Soon she could slip her head and shoulders through the tear. Marisa wormed her way free, inch by burning inch, until she lay among the cave coral, panting for breath in the acrid air.

Finally, the petite witch struggled to her feet. Stray silk wisps clung to her Rapunzel hair like the train of a bridal veil. She hissed as she peeled the sticky silk mask from her face, then she checked on her fellow prisoners.

Patchouli still slept among the snowy cave coral, swaddled inside spider silk and her own purple hair, while Mr. Kirisame sagged in a cocoon lashed upright to a stone column. Marisa breathed a sigh of relief at the color blooming in his ashen cheeks.

She knelt and searched through the globular crystals. Using a rock, she knapped a rough edge on a flat stone. The crude knife tore perforations into the remnants of her silk prison. A poor blade, but better than not having one.

Marisa tiptoed through the bed of cave coral, grimacing as her hair caught on the gypsum branches. After slow deliberate untangling, the magical girl reached her father.

Family came first, as her father always said. Or at least he did until his daughter wandered home in a black pointy hat. But this was the second time the earth spiders targeted Marisa's father. And every mountain girl knew in her marrow the first rule of a feud.

She sawed at the collar of Mr. Kirisame's cocoon with the stone blade. As the silk parted, Mr. Kirisame sagged deeper in his bonds until, with a final groan of ripping silk, he slumped on top of the pixyish magical girl.

Marisa groaned as the sudden weight drove her to her knees but she somehow rolled her father safely to the ground. She collapsed on top of his chest. She lay there for a moment, cursing the mounting aches and her shortness of breath. Patchouli was supposed to be the weakling, not her. She sat up and shook his shoulders. "Daddy, wake up."

Mr. Kirisame's eyes fluttered open. The shopkeeper looked all around the granite chamber. "Where am I?"

"Hell if I know." Marisa shrugged.

"Watch your language, young lady."

Their old unresolved fight bayed in Marisa's blood, but rather than spitting a bitter reminder that she was longer a child, the magical girl waved away the rebuke. "You should hear Reimu's mouth after a cup of  _sake_  or two. That girl's been nothing but a bad influence on me."

"She's not my daughter. You are."

Marisa turned away to hide her swoon. After years of estrangement, it felt  _right_  to hear her father acknowledge her. Now if only he would admit that she was right all along.

Mr. Kirisame pulled himself to his feet. "Where's Miss Knowledge? Last I remember we were walking together, then I woke up here."

Marisa glowered as she pointed to the purple cocoon. "She's getting her beauty rest."

"Thank the gods, she's okay." The shopkeeper rubbed his temples. "I thought we were done with the earth spiders. They've got my journal. What else do they need?"

"They can't read them."

"I expected more from a people of surveyors and engineers."

"These aren't the spiders' best and brightest," Marisa said, "just their thugs."

"Do you have a plan?" Mr. Kirisame asked his daughter.

Marisa stood and brushed cave dust from her skirt. "I'll make it up as I go, like usual," said Gensokyo's second most famous trouble shooter.

* * *

Marisa knelt in the lava tube cave outside the chamber of the makeshift prison and fussed with the tangled web of silk and metal in her hand. A coin, a barrette, and a darning needle spun on the skeins. The witch waited as the makeshift dowsers unwound to a stop. "Let's go left."

Mr. Kirisame stood in the chamber's mouth, while Patchouli still slept, draped over his shoulder. "The exit is to the right."

"True." Marisa shivered as a faint breeze puffed against her right cheek. "But my elemental furnace is on the left."

"Leave it. We need to get out of here." The shopkeeper shifted Patchouli higher on his shoulder.

The magical girl shook her head as she wound the silk tangle into a ball. "Rinnosuke gave that to me." The mess vanished inside her apron.

"Mr. Morichika, you mean."

"No, Rin-no- _su_ -ke." Marisa flicked a single  _danmaku_  pellet down the lava tube. She pursed her lips at a web of faint glimmers running near the ground. More triplines. "Besides, we might find your book with my stuff. Don't worry, once we find your notes, I have the perfect hiding spot for them—right underneath Reimu's mattress. Ain't no  _youkai_  crazy enough to wake up a shrine maiden."

Mr. Kirisame made to speak, then closed his mouth. He gave his daughter a nod.

Taking the lead, Marisa padded through the cave, keen-eyed for the faintest flash of silk, wary of the traps and trap-door spiders hidden along the walls. Thanks to Patchouli's chronic frailty, the elementalist was a dead weight on her father's back. He bore it well, albeit with a growing stoop as he shuffled behind Marisa. Meanwhile, Marisa swore she saw the ghost of a smile on Patchouli's lips.

The magical girl approached a white cord strung shin-high. She hiked her skirt and took a high step over the wire. Her eyes flashed wide, and she stopped in mid-stride. Marisa eased away from the tripline and back to safety.

She pursed her lips and examined the obvious trap. Even fairies showed more subtlety. Unless…

Marisa wound her floor-length hair into a quick bun and scowled. A second line hung almost invisible behind the cord, just far enough away to catch an unsuspecting witch, especially one with short legs. Marisa stepped between the two lines and helped her father over the trap.

She found two more traps further down the tunnel, one knee high, the other chest high but no other signs of the earth spiders. Marisa called for a rest, but her father kept trudging down the shaft with Patchouli on his shoulder. With a sigh, Marisa darted ahead of him.

The next trap draped a net across the top half of the shaft. Marisa ducked under it, then hopscotched through a maze of tanglefoot wires. Both withered away in the flare of a minor Spark.

Finally, Marisa found the foyer to another illuminated chamber. Where the spiders earlier turned a lava chamber into a prison cell, the new room bore chisel marks and right angles. More importantly, her hat sat on a low  _kotatsu_ -style table. The Rapunzel witch quickly swept the foyer for traps, then reclaimed her hat.

Mr. Kirisame propped Patchouli against the  _kotatsu_. He teased a thread of silk free from her hair and slowly unraveled her cocoon. Marisa handed over her cutting stone from her apron. More enticing treasures no doubt waited in the room beyond.

Marisa pushed her way through a reed curtain into the storeroom. Like the foyer, this closet was hewn from the heart of the mountain. A mess of wooden bins, shelves, and baskets lined the walls. The magical magpie flittered between the shelves, peeking into every nook and cupboard.

At the bottom of a bin of T-squares, drafting triangles, and sketching compasses, she found her wand. Clipboards and reports filled the rest of the storage space. One basket overflowed with books bearing the familiar rowan-berry wreathed bookplate of Patchouli's personal collection. Marisa leafed through a pair of these, then shoved the basked back under a shelf. Nothing but dry geological surveys.

Where was her elemental furnace? Marisa swept through the cupboards and baskets again, frantic, slamming the bins. The magical girl blinked back tears. Not only had that furnace sparked many a magical experiment over the year, receiving it was the first kindness she found since leaving home.

More importantly, it was Rinnosuke who gave her both.

"Marisa," Mr. Kirisame called in a stage whisper from the foyer.

The magical girl wiped her eyes dry. She grabbed a rowan-plated book and, hiding behind her bravest face, ducked through the reed curtain.

In the foyer, Patchouli clung to Mr. Kirisame as he lifted her free from the split cocoon at his feet. He glanced over his shoulder. "That's not my notebook."

Patchouli dropped from Mr. Kirisame's arms. "When did you steal this?" She ripped the book free from Marisa's hands.

"There's an entire basket of them inside." Marisa pointed to the storeroom. "I'm jealous. These thieves have a bigger collection of your books than me."

Familiar with the Rapunzel witch's lies, Patchouli glowered at Marisa, then flounced through the curtain. A furious shriek escaped the storeroom, followed by a cacophony of crashes and thuds.

"Did you find what you were looking for? We need to leave." Mr. Kirisame eyed the lava tube tunnel. Occasionally, he glanced back at the billowing storeroom curtain.

"Only my wand." Marisa draped herself across the toasty  _kotatsu_. She clenched her eyes shut as she turned away from her father. "I'll come back later. This is an incident, after all. I can't let Reimu hog all the glory."

"Stand up, young lady."

Marisa shook her head and basked in the  _kotatsu_ 's warmth. "Who's a young lady? I'm a witch." Her brow furled at the heat. She pursed her lips and rolled off the table.

Her father ignored the bait. As the clamor behind the curtain subsided, he edged along the wall of the foyer towards the exit. "I don't want to speed another week hiding in a closet from spiders."

Marisa flipped up the skirt of the  _kotatsu_. "Don't worry about that, you have two witches with you." Her eyes lit up. A bronze basin glowed underneath the table.

"I'm an alchemist!" Patchouli said peevishly from the storeroom.

"That just means she uses rocks instead of toadstools." Marisa wrapped her hand in the jumble of silk from her apron. She slid her furnace out from underneath the  _kotatsu_. With a content sigh, she blew out the flame.

Mr. Kirisame hooked his hands under Marisa's shoulders and hauled her to her feet. Before she could protest, he hugged the foyer wall, and, with an outstretched arm, he pushed his daughter behind him into the lee of the wall.

Shadows marched through the lava tube.

Marisa juggled the scalding furnace between her hands before catching it in the folds of her apron. She then ducked under her father's arm. As a trio of silhouetted figures strode closer through the tunnel, the Rapunzel witch held a single glowing spell card between her fingers.

Three blonde spiderettes stepped into the foyer. One was pixyish with a ledger book cradled against her chest, another, stately and Junoesque, and the third, Akikonomu. The grazing blue beam of a Master Spark froze them in their tracks.

"What's the matter? Is it too hard to brave when you can't take the first shot?" Marisa taunted from behind her father. The spell card crumbled in her hand.

"Go." Akikonomu shoved the petite spiderette out of the foyer. Instead of following the fleeing girl, Marisa's wasp-waisted rival hurled a spell card at the Kirisames. Mr. Kirisame tried to shield his daughter, but Marisa squirmed free from his grasp.

The room filled with flickering black afterimages.

Marisa chuckled as the light show faded. For all of Akikonomu's bravado, the spiderette threw a bomb in the first moments of a fight. The poor fool could not even marshal the courage of a newborn fairy.

But Akikonomu shared the same incredulous glare. Who threw the bomb?

"Hello, 'Silk'." Patchouli stood in the storeroom's doorway, glowering over a stack of her books in her arms.

Marisa raised an eye as Akikonomu recoiled from the librarian witch's words. The spiderette spy edged towards the lava tunnel. Despite whatever history existed between Patchouli and Akikonomu, the line for squashing spiderettes started behind Marisa. Then her hackles rose as the cavern filled with the most harrowing sound a witch could hear—the unrestrained cackling of another witch.

"Run!" shrieked Marisa. The magical girl dragged her father out of the foyer.

Akikonomu's Junoesque lackey rushed Patchouli.  _Power_  flashed outward from the elementalist, crumpling the spiderette. The ceiling buckled, spraying flat shards like  _danmaku_  throughout the room. Jagged cracks belched ash and sand.

Patchouli walked serenely through the showers, untouched by the showers of crumbling rock.

Marisa clutched her hat as she ran through the lava tube cave, Mr. Kirisame alongside her until, at least, his longer legs outpaced hers. The magical girl soon found herself pulled away from the billowing dust by her father.

Overhead the stone tube pinged, then split in a long rolling fissure. A cascade of loose stone and soil filled the cave behind them.

And still Patchouli strode through the maelstrom of earth, carrying her books.

The crumbling collapse of the lava tube cave soon overtook Marisa and her father. After leaping through a falling curtain of sand, the magical girl closed her eyes and tackled her father from behind. Drawing upon every scrap of magic available, she flew through the tunnel with her father in her arms. Marisa chased the leading edge of the collapse, weaving through falling rock and dirt until she burst out from the underground into the forests of Youkai Mountain. A plume of dust rolled out of the lava tube behind her. Marisa ducked behind the nearest tree and huddled with her father until the volcanic ash settled.

Patchouli walked out of the cave, untouched by stone or dust. Behind her, a rockfall sealed the lava tube.

"This is why your mother worried about your magic," Mr. Kirisame said.

"I'm not that kind of witch!" Marisa frantically scrubbed at the dirt and silk caked on her once black dress. She sneezed from the dust, then sneezed again as a piquant potpourri of honey, ambrosia, and cherry blossoms filled the mountainside. The cloying fragrance swept away her aches from the tunnel race.

A sneezing fit seized Patchouli as the  _youkai_  elementalist staggered toward Mr. Kirisame. Bleary-eyed, she buried her face in his chest.

"So that's what your accounts meant," Mr. Kirisame murmured. He held Patchouli, ignoring the dagger glare from his daughter. "The bones of a true saint are said to give off an unmistakable scent when disturbed. We can find the Golden Room if we just follow our noses."

Marisa grimaced and threw up her hand. All of her scrubbing had yet to clean a single spot on her skirt. "Not before I change dresses."

A flock of inky shadows swooped from the mountaintop. A platoon of wolf  _tengu_  shield maidens crashed through the leaves surrounding the Kirisames in a parade-ground cordon of painted shields and wolf-fang cleavers. Each wolf scout hid her face from the astringent vapors with a stark white veil.

The tallest shield maiden shouldered her maple-leaf shield. From an unfurled scroll, Momiji Inubashiri read aloud:

"Effective immediately, all members of the Kirisame family are expelled from Youkai Mountain. No member of the Kirisame family or their descendants for seven generations shall be permitted on Mount Tengu or Youkai Mountain, the twin sacred mountains of the  _Tengu_. Thus the  _High Tengu_  commands."


	11. Interludes: Rushing Wind

The Suzunaan's store bell rang in protest as Landgravine Akyuu Hieda threw open the door of the Suzunaan bookstore. "Kosuzu!"

Kosuzu Motoori sat behind her register and glanced up from the fan of yen in her hand. "Oh, it's you, Akyuu."

"Don't even start with that." Akyuu thrust a thin paperback in the bookseller's face. "What are you doing with this?"

Kosuzu examined the cover. A shapely woman in a dark cape and a glass globe mask loomed over a  _youkai_  thug. "Making money."

"It's outselling me!" Akyuu flipped open the book, ignoring Kosuzu's glare as she creased the binding. "Listen to this nonsense:

" _Mist; thick, black mist—nothing but mist. It seemed to invite her plunge. Yet she hesitated—as many wait when they are upon the brink of death—until, with a mad impulse, she swung her body across the rail and loosened her hands._

_"Something clamped upon her shoulder. An iron grip held her—balanced between life and death. Then, as though her body possessed no weight whatever, the woman felt herself pulled around in a sweeping circle._

_"She turned to confront the person who had interfered. It was as though the girl's strength had been wrested from her when she faced a comely, black-cloaked figure that might have represented death itself. For she could not have sworn that she was looking at a human being._

_"The stranger's face was entirely obscured by a glass globe mask painted with the shadows of the full moon, and the long, black cloak looked like part of the thickening fog."*_

Akyuu closed the book and glowered at Kosuzu with the accumulated petulance of nine lifetimes.

"Keep going." Kosuzu beckoned with her fan of money. "No, really, keep going. You're getting to the good part."

"This Moon Maid is an affront to 1500 years of Japanese literature," Akyuu squawked.

Kosuzu tapped the fan into a neat stack. "Now, Akyuu, you do realize I run a business?" The bookseller slipped the money into the register. "And bestsellers like the one in your hand allow us to take chances with more niche titles. Such as your cozy mysteries."

Akyuu slapped her hand against the table. "I'm your best-selling author!"

"No, that's Princess Toyohime. Her commemorative album of Princess Kaguya's wedding to my brother still sells like hotcakes."

"Okay, then of the past three months. Don't bother lying, you showed me the sales figures."

"And now you aren't." Kosuzu shrugged. "Try harder."

Akyuu bristled at the slight. "Who wrote this pulp? Satori?" She glanced at the cover. "'Ariel Neptune.' Sounds fishy to me."

"You of all people should know that I don't reveal the authors behind their pseudonyms, Miss AQtha Christie."

"Whatever. Just sell more of my books."

"Write faster."

"How dare you make demands on my muse!"

"Miss Neptune writes a novel every two weeks."

The book dropped from Akyuu's hand. The startled landgravine regained her composure. "Her books are only selling because you paid some shameless hussy to flaunt herself across town as the Moon Maid." Her eyes narrowed. "How much did you pay Komachi?"

"What, and sacrifice my  _youkai_  book budget?" Kosuzu laughed. "The Moon Maid's real. Someone has to solve incidents while Reimu and Marisa are away."

"Then how does 'Miss Neptune' know so much about her?"

Kosuzu shrugged. "I just print the books and take the money."

Akyuu groaned. "If a  _youkai_  wrote them, you'd pay more attention."

A sly smile graced Kosuzu's lips.

The landgravine lunged and grabbed Kosuzu by the collar. "So you do know. Tell me!"

The floor bucked and roiled beneath their feet. Books toppled from the bookshelves. Throughout the Suzunaan store, doors swung open. In the distance, a loud crack followed by a bass rumble echoed from the foothills.

When the ground stilled, Akyuu released Kosuzu. "I thought the  _kappa_  weren't supposed to be blasting tunnels until next week."

Kosuzu shrugged, then sneezed before she could answer. A flowery breeze tickled her nose, full of cherry blossoms, citrus, and honey. The refreshing fragrance swept through the store, clinging like an unseen fog to all it touched. She closed the register, then darted to the Suzunaan's front door and peeked out into the street. "Did a perfumer's still topple over?

Akyuu closed her eyes and pursed her lips. Somewhere in nine lifetimes, she must have encountered this familiar fragrance—

A shrill wail shrieked from inside the bookshelf maze. Kosuzu froze in the doorway and covered her ears. Her eyes snapped wide. Was that from her  _youkai_  books? The ear-splitting keening grew louder. She dashed into the heart of the stacks, dragging Akyuu with her.

On an endcap pedestal, Kosuzu found a scalebound book screaming from an eyeless face tanned into its cover. Whether it was a human's or some long extinct fishman's, Kosuzu never wanted to know. Wine-stain weals spread across the face of the shrieking book, the only one Marisa Kirisame outright refused to steal:

 _The_   _Necronomicon_.

The mountain wind blew cherry and citrus notes through the bookstore and into the stacks. Akyuu pulled Kosuzu away from the terrible parchment.

The weals spread until the profane book turned scarlet. As each new gust swept through the stacks, new clouds of sulfurous smoke sloughed from the Mad Arab's book. Green flame licked out from within the bound parchment. The pages crackled in the fire like burning fat. The ambrosia wind bore away the stench of burning rot.

Wide-eyed, Kosuzu and Akyuu clung to each other, transfixed in terror as, alone in Kosuzu's  _youkai_  library, the  _Necronomicon_  consumed itself, screaming until only a score of soot remained on the shelf.

* * *

Kaguya swayed her way down the hallway of Eternity Manor, covering her mouth with her hand. She slumped against the nearest wall, closed her eyes, and waited for the room to stop spinning. With a saint unearthed, filling the air with the divine fragrance of glass cleaner, she should have stayed in bed, but Eirin would have fussed over her. The fairy-tale princess scowled at the thought. That was her husband Yori's job.

She wrapped her house robe tighter around her body, hissing as the cloth tugged at her breasts. A wicked gleam filled Kaguya's eye. Tonight she would teach her adored and beloved husband to be gentler.

A new waft of potpourri and cleaning chemicals swept through Eternity Manor, turning Kaguya's stomach. The fairy-tale princess clung to the wall as dry heaves wracked her body. Once the nausea mercifully passed, Kaguya cursed the fool who disturbed the bones of a saint.

To most humans, the perfume from a true holy man's remains gave a pleasant and refreshing bouquet. Thanks to a sip of the Hourai Elixir, Kaguya was instead an immortal sinner, so she found the holiness less than pleasant—and a good reason to stay in bed. Even if it was after noon.

Instead, Kaguya slid along the wall on her way to the kitchen. A throbbing headache lingered from her latest bout with nausea.

As soon as she opened the door to the dining room, the trio of  _reisen_  moon bunnies huddled around Eirin Yagokoro raised their heads and stared expectantly at Kaguya. The fairy-tale princess glared at the lunar sage, who cleared her throat.

The trio scattered, then knelt at the dining table, with the original Reisen sitting next to Eirin, while the orange tomboy and the blue belle sat on opposite sides of the head of the table. All eyes remained on Kaguya, even as the moon bunnies shared giggles.

Kaguya ignored the  _reisens_  as she took her accustomed seat at the head of the table. "Tea, please," she rasped. A pink-dressed  _inaba_  bunny brought out steaming mugs from the kitchen. Kaguya sipped the green tea, basking in the soothing warmth. "Where's Yori?" she finally asked.

The  _reisens'_  ears perked up at her question.

"I asked him to harvest pine mushrooms for dinner tonight." Eirin set aside her mug. "It's time we had another Talk."

"I am a married woman, not a blushing bride." Kaguya tried to ignore the giggling  _reisens_. Their laughter grew louder as her glower deepened.

Eirin's face remained a placid mask. "Would you rather we have this talk in nine months?"

Kaguya scowled as the  _reisens_  choked back their laughter, then her eyes snapped wide. She leapt to her feet. "Are you sure?"

"I've been a doctor long enough to know what happens next when a newlywed woman gets that special glow." Eirin grinned as she held up three plastic sticks. A blue plus sign appeared on each. "Also, I've been testing the urine in your chamber pots ever since your wedding."

"But-" Kaguya stammered. Her head spun as a thousand thoughts race through her mind. "Are you sure?"

Eirin hid her laughter behind her hand. "Oh, my, did you think really the saint's bones caused your morning sickness?"

"What about the Hourai curse?" Kaguya's eyes grew wide as she considered the danger to her child. She grabbed the nearest  _reisen_. "Where's Mokou?"

"At the Hakurei Shrine," the blue belle  _reisen_  said.

"I want a circle of rabbits watching her at all times," Kaguya demanded.

All eyes turned to Eirin, who nodded. The orange tomboy excused herself from the table.

"You might want to worry about more pressing concerns." The lunar sage coughed politely, but her mirth spilled forth. "Like what are you going to tell Yori?"

Kaguya froze, her mouth agape. Then, to her mortification, a muscular arm wrapped around her waist and pulled the fairy-tale princess into a welcoming kiss.

"Tell me what?" Yori Houraisan murmured between kisses to his wife.

* * *

Closed inside the sanctum of the Hakurei Shrine, a raven-tressed shrine maiden knelt before the reliquary altar. A black and white icon bearing the wisteria flower  _mon_  icon of the Fujiwara clan hung in the place of honor.

The shrine maiden bowed until her forehead touched the wooden floor. She whispered silent prayers, unwilling to trust her voice while tears welled in her eyes.

A hand settled on her shoulder. "What's troubling you, Granddaughter?"

Mokou placed a hand on his and sat up. She faced her defied grandfather, Lord Kamatari, a kindly silver-haired man in black robes sitting beside her. "Please, release me from my vows."

Lord Kamatari raised an eyebrow. "But you are happy here."

"The earth spiders are back." Mokou shuddered and bowed her head. "I don't want to be a spider's bride. Please allow me to defend myself."

"Are you that eager to leave the shrine to Kasen?"

Mokou froze, her mouth agape. "No," she whispered.

Lord Kamatari squeezed his immortal granddaughter's shoulder. "You spent 1400 years trying to expunge our clan's dishonor. You've yet to learn how difficult it is to live to avoid dishonor altogether. Besides, no god, man, or  _youkai_  would dare violate the shrine's sanctuary. You'll be safe from the earth spider clans as long as you stay at the shrine."

Mokou shifted in her seat and lowered her eyes. "But my duties will take me into the Village."

"Perhaps now you won't swear oaths so rashly." The Fujiwara god crossed his arms. "But I can promise that you won't be unprotected, my little rabbit priestess."

Mokou blinked in surprise at the unfamiliar pet name. "I can take care of myself. I  _want_  to take care of myself."

The silvery god sighed and hugged his granddaughter. "Fate has already taken your choice. You have visitors."

Wide-eyed, Mokou leaped for the sanctum's door. She slid open the divider just wide enough so she could stare out into the courtyard.

A lop-eared bunny girl in orange chewed on a skewer as she passed under the shrine's sacred  _torii_  gate. Only a moon rabbit could do so uninvited. Behind her, a trio of earth rabbits in pink dresses cut a wide circle around the red gate.

Mokou slumped to the floor. "Not again," she whispered.

"There are still forces on this earth against which the gods themselves strive in vain," Lord Kamatari murmured as he faded from the sanctum.

* * *

With one eye fixed on the gilded face of the grandfather clock, Meiling Hong skulked through the vestibule of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She settled in the corner and glanced furtively around the room. Only then did she pull a dog-eared paperback from her hip pocket. As the second hand swept around in a circle, the scarlet guardswoman lost herself in its pages.

A shrill scream echoed through the halls of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

With a sigh, Meiling clapped shut her well-worn copy of  _Shambleau_. "Right when the little harpy is about to get her just desserts." The Chinese  _youkai_  pushed away from the wall. "Gorgons are such slippery snakes."

Meiling closed her eyes, cocked an ear, and waited. A second scream, low and fearful, rang through the mansion. The guardswoman slipped her book back into a pocket and hurried towards the cry.

The caterwauling crescendoed as Meiling flew through an antechamber into a spacious lobby complete with balconies and a spiraling staircase.

"Help me!" Koakuma screeched. The devilish familiar dangled from the railing of the third floor. She kicked out with her feet, clawing for the staircase. Above her, the shifting ceiling ground down towards the little devil's fingers.

Meiling slid to a stop in the center of the lobby. The Scarlet Devil Mansion's room stretched and shrank according to Sakuya's whims. Given Koakuma's mischievous nature, the little devil probably deserved her current peril. The scarlet guardswoman cupped her hands around her mouth. "What did you do this time?"

"I'm slipping!" Koakuma shrieked as the descending ceiling swallowed the fourth floor. Her bat wings flapped furiously as she regained her white-knuckled death grip on the iron railing. The little devil wailed, "Sakuya, stop! Please!"

Meiling yelled back. "Just fly away." Every girl in Gensokyo learned to fly as soon as she crafted her first spell card. But Meiling had not seen Koakuma seized by such ashen-faced terror since the time Koakuma followed Patchouli into the Vatican Museums.

Meiling edged towards the antechamber, then stopped. Duty demanded that she resolve this mess before Remilia noticed it.

Even if it meant defying Sakuya.

She pursed her lips and studied the lowering ceiling, now less than a meter from Koakuma's hands. Meiling exhaled sharply and drew upon her  _chi_. This was going to  _hurt_.

"I'll catch you," the guardswoman called. She held out her arms and tried to get under Koakuma's dangling feet. Meiling was dimly aware of creaking hinges and a slammed door.

The grandfather clock tolled like a tocsin, loud, insistent, and unceasing.

A chill wind rushed through the halls, bearing an astringent mix of pine oil, vinegar, and Hatch chilies. Tears welled in Meiling's eyes as the harsh air scratched at her throat.

Above Meiling, Koakuma fell like lightning.

The little devil and the guardswoman crumpled in a heap on the floor.

Meiling groaned under Koakuma's weight. As the guardswoman gathered her wits, doors slammed throughout the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Someone stomped with heavy feet through the halls. For the first time since the fairies fell sick, the incessant creaking of the mansion's walls fell silent.

A shadow covered Meiling's face. She opened her eyes to the hem of a purple dress of a style Meiling last saw in La Belle Époque Paris.

"Koakuma!" Patchouli roared, her voice muffled by the veil across her face. An actinic magic circle glowed beneath the alchemist's feet. "Come here!"

The weight lifted from Meiling as Koakuma appeared inside the magic circle.

"Your plan didn't work." Before Koakuma could wheeze an answer, Patchouli grabbed Koakuma by a bat ear and dragged the familiar out of the lobby. The door slammed behind them.

Meiling pulled herself to her feet and tried to ignore the cloying scent of pine oil.

"Sakuya, Sakuya, Sakuya!" Flandre shouted breathlessly as she dashed through the still halls of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The littlest vampire spotted the Chinese guardswoman and ran into her arms. "Meiling, Remilia's got a toothache!" Flandre wailed.

The Chinese guardswoman paled at the thought.

* * *

As the shadows in the Forest of Magic grew long, the  _tengu_  scout platoon marched away at a dogtrot, abandoning Marisa and her father in front of a brown cottage. Vines engulfed the cozy house, and a line of trees in front of the windows were thick enough to be a hedge.

The black and white witch wiped her eyes. For the first time in nearly four months, Marisa was home.

Mr. Kirisame tugged at a bramble runner clinging to the house's stucco walls. "You should ask one of your brothers to come here with a set of pruning shears."

Marisa grimaced as she rubbed at the mountain grit caked on her face. "It's easier to ask the fairies to shape the trees away from the house. They still owe me favors." Her eyes sought their treehouse home above the forest canopy, but the evening shadows shrouded all.

"It's too late to return to the Village." Mr. Kirisame release the climbing vine.

Marisa fussed with the front door's deadbolt lock. "Give me a moment. I might have to clear space for you."

"I've seen your room before, young lady," the storekeeper rumbled.

Marisa opened the door and froze. Instead of the comforting magpie clutter piled throughout her home, the magical girl could see shelves and corners and even floorboards. Her living room was spotless, with polished floors. Not a single cobweb hung from the ceiling.

But Marisa's precious things weren't missing. An impressive and varied array of organizers and drawers sat stacked against a wall. Atop the dining table, a blonde doll clung to a broom and dustpan. Folded stationary laid underneath the doll's delicate dress.

Marisa drew in a deep breath. "Alice, how  _dare_  you!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *The Suzunaan Publishing Company extends its sincerest apologies to Kent Allard, Maxwell Grant, and Walter Gibson for Miss Neptune's thinly veiled "homage" to The Living Shadow.


	12. The Rabbit Priestess's Request

The next morning, Marisa ransacked the clever collection of storage bins that Alice foisted upon her, hurling charms, tools, and clothes into a pair of rucksacks. The magical girl hung a compass around her neck, then stuffed the dangling end under her back dress. She slipped several packages of those silvery blankets Sumireko handed out like spell cards into her apron. After drawing the rucksacks' cords tight, she pinned Alice's doll to one, then threaded her broom through the straps. With a snap of her fingers, the broom and the rucksacks floated to her waist.

"Daddy, we're all packed. I don't have much in the pantry, but we'll have time to forage for mushrooms, chestnuts, and pumpkins on our way." Marisa was met with silence. She turned around and noticed the lamplight inside the parlor that served as the showroom for her magic shop.

Slipping once more into the little girl who loved nothing more than to hunt treasure with her father, Marisa flounced towards her store and froze inside the doorway.

The angry teenager returned. "What do you think you are doing?"

Mr. Kirisame sat behind the hardwood counter, examining Marisa's ledgers. A dense column of math filled a leaf of scratch paper at his elbow. "Checking on my daughter's well-being," the graying shopkeeper said without once looking up from his accounting.

Maris ran to the counter and slammed her hands against it. "Who gave you permission to read that?"

"You did."

"Like Hell I did."

"This is the Kirisame Magic Shop, a branch of the Boutique. So I am the proprietor." Mr. Kirisame closed the ledger and handed it to his daughter. "You've done well."

"Of course." Marisa preened at the praise. "You don't see me out peddling like a shrine maiden."

"I've often wondered why. You're only open maybe once a week."

"I don't get enough customers to do otherwise. Besides, I sell enough spell card reagents and lessons in the Village that the Magic Shop is more of a passion project these days." Marisa tugged on her father's sleeve. "Can we go now? Daylight's wasting, and there's treasure to find."

Mr. Kirisame flipped open a second ledger, his own, and stared at the columns.

"Daddy, we need to hit the road. Those earth spider cheats have a head start." Marisa waited, but her father remained fixed on his numbers. Petulant, the Rapunzel witch stamped her heavy boot. "Hey, Old Man, this is an incident."

"That's your concern, not mine." Mr. Kirisame turned a page and grimaced.

"Why? We used to hunt treasure together when I was a girl."

"I can't afford to. I've been away from my store for too long."

Marisa deflated. "You said my brother was minding the shop."

"I didn't want you to worry."

"It's too late. I saved you from earth spiders, and they haven't left us alone since."

Mr. Kirisame pocketed his ledger. "All the more reason for me to head back to the Village."

"Let's just go and search for one more day. Please?" Marisa fixed her saddest puppy-dog eyes upon her father. They graying shopkeeper stared back impassively. The blonde witch sighed before eyeing the floor. "Just think of the riches we'll find."

"Or we might be chasing fairy gold instead." Mr. Kirisame folded his hands atop the counter.

"We'll never know until we look."

"Three month's spent earnings, two blown supplier deals, and one banishment ago, I would have agreed with you. Now my store and my customers need to come first." With one hand, Mr. Kirisame cut short Marisa's reply. "You're not a girl anymore. You can't just play shop. People rely on our stores. Your mother understood that."

Marisa seethed at her mother's mention. "If Patchouli asked, you would go." As soon as she spoke, the blonde witch clamped her hands over her mouth and grew scarlet.

Mr. Kirisame pushed away from the counter, leapt to his feet, and drew in a deep breath.

The store bell jingled.

"We're closed," both Marisa and her father snapped.

"Perfect. Then you have no reason not to come with me." The woman's melodious voice set Marisa's teeth on edge.

The Rapunzel witch spun around, one hand reaching for the deck of sell cards in her apron. As soon as Marisa noticed the tall white rabbit ears, her hand covered her coin purse instead. "I'm not in the mood for Tewi's tricks, Seiran."

The blue belle bunny girl dipped into a curtsy. "Mokou invites you and your father to tea at the Hakurei Shrine."

Mr. Kirisame exhales sharply and assumes the shopkeeper's placid mask. "The offer sounds lovely, but we must tend to this store."

Seiran tittered behind her hand. All around the Kirisame Magic Shop, lop-eared silhouettes loomed in the windows. "Princess Kaguya insists."

* * *

Marisa shielded her eyes as the boisterous line of bunny girls led her and her father out of the dark Forest of Magic into a sunlit meadow. At the head of the procession, Seiran swaggered towards the red  _torii_  gate of the Hakurei Shrine. After blinking away the morning glare, Marisa flashed a venomous glare at the blue belle bunny's cottontail. No one in Gensokyo was as insufferable as a moon rabbit with authority.

A shrill scream bellowed from the Hakurei Shrine. Entire warrens of white rabbits fled around the  _torii_  gate, followed by a trio of  _youkai_  rabbits. Seiran froze as the fluffy white tide stampeded towards her. Marisa hopped onto her overladen broom and waited as the first rabbits darted beneath her.

A second shout roared from the shrine. With a spray of sparks, Marisa soared over the lines of fleeing rabbits, past a red and blue blur, and banked around the entrance gate. She skidded to a stop, dragging her boots through the grass as the source of the shouting became clear.

"You didn't want me, you just wanted my shrine," Reimu hollered in the face of Lord Kamatari. The shrine maiden had traded her suitor's favored traditional robes for her stylish dress. She shook her prayer staff in the Fujiwara god's face, goaded on by his bemused smirk.

Marisa dropped from her broom and hurried to Reimu's side. On the far side of the shrine's grounds, Sanae shooed a quartet of snowy rabbits from a storeroom, then paused in mid-step.

"You just wanted me out of the way so your pyromaniac granddaughter could take over." Twin glowing orbs appeared at Reimu's shoulders.

Marisa grinned at the black-robed god, brandishing a fan of spell cards. Perhaps he would put up a more thrilling  _danmaku_  duel than the score of goddesses bested by Marisa.

"Looks like those rabbit girls moved in instead." The gray eminence pointed towards the shrine's reliquary. A moon bunny in tangerine reclined on its steps. Nibbling on a skewer of dumplings, Ringo waved at Lord Kamatari.

"I'll run them off next," Reimu hissed, advancing on the god.

Marisa glanced over her shoulder. While a trio of earth bunnies huddled behind the steps, Ringo gulped down her dumplings, sat up, and stretched.

"I will take back my shrine," the irate shrine maiden vowed.

Sanae squeezed between Reimu and Marisa. "You forget that this is a Moriya branch shrine, so actually it's  _mine_." The wind priestess stood as a barrier between Lord Kamatari and his jilted flame. The Wonder Girl bowed to the silvery god. "Welcome to this shrine, Lord Kamatari. Mokou is waiting for you in the sanctuary."

The black-robed god nodded and departed for the main hall. When Reimu lunged after him, Sanae whirled around and caught her.

"I'm not done with him. Let me go!" Reimu squirmed in the wind priestess's grasp. "At least let me at the rabbits."

Sanae dragged the Hakurei shrine maiden away. "Not yet, we have to refill the water basins by the entrance."

To Marisa's wide-eyed surprise, Reimu deflated and let the Wonder Girl lead her towards the shrine's well.

Ringo drifted over towards the blonde witch. "Aw, I thought I'd get to play."

"Not today," Marisa murmured. "Things here are a bit mad, even for me. Why did your bunny friends bring me here? Since when did you all take orders from Mokou?"

"We don't." Ringo chewed on her skewer stick and stared at the treeline.

"Are you going to tell me who's behind all this?"

"Nope," the tangerine moon bunny drawled.

"Really? You rabbits love to gossip."

"Sometimes keeping a secret is more fun."

Marisa shrugged and chased down her broom. "If this turns into an incident, I'm coming for you first."

Ringo pulled the skewer out of her mouth and flicked the point at the  _torii_  gate. "I don't think you'll have the time."

Marisa followed the skewer with her eyes and seethed. For, splashing in the hand-washing basin next to when her father performed his ritual ablutions, stood a star-spangled hell fairy. The magical girl stomped over and clamped a heavy hand on Clownpiece's shoulder.

The harlequin fairy whirled around. "Hi, Marisa. Did you know Reimu's back?"

"Stay away from my daddy, fairy," Marisa hissed. Mr. Kirisame deigned not to notice her commotion.

"You're not doing anything with him." Clownpiece shrugged free. She flicked water into Marisa's face.

Marisa wiped her face dry, then lunged at the fairy.

"Girls, stop. This is holy ground," Mr. Kirisame rumbled. "Clownpiece, go see if Seiran needs helps Marisa, wash your hands."

"Okay," the girls said in unison.

After washing her hands and rinsing her mouth according to Shinto ritual, Marisa wondered if a witch should be mindful of such traditions. And since when did she start obeying her father again?

* * *

Squeezed inside the shrine's office, Marisa fidgeted as she nursed her second cup of honeyed tea. The Rapunzel witch shifted away from a hot spot on the floor and sneezed. The walls were plastered with enough paper wards to set her teeth on edge. Despite the wards channeling enough holy energy to call a storm, little eavesdroppers found a way.

Sanae, Reimu, and Mr. Kirisame filled the other corners of the walk-in office. All eyes stared at Mokou, who examined the ripples in her cup of now lukewarm tea. Her cheeks matched the scarlet of her divided skirts.

The assistant shrine maiden set her tea aside and cleared her throat. With her eyes downcast, Mokou uttered the words Marisa least expected to hear from the phoenix girl, "I need help."

Sanae scowled. "Why did you ask the Kirisames instead of coming to your head priestess?" The Wonder Girl bowed to Mr. Kirisame. "I mean no offense. Her needs are the Moriya Shrine's responsibility."

Mr. Kirisame nodded. "Let her speak."

Mokou appeared to shrink inside her white robe. "It's about the earth spiders."

"I'm in." Marisa set aside her tea and rubbed her hands together in manic glee.

Mr. Kirisame frowned at his daughter. "You don't know what Miss Fujiwara is about to ask."

"I don't need to. Those bandits are at the center of a string of incidents," Marisa said. "Besides, I want another shot at Akikonomu."

Reimu cut in. "Is this about your secret history with the bandit clans?" The Hakurei shrine maiden flashed too many teeth for a smile.

As Mokou quailed from Reimu, Marisa said, "I thought Akyuu said those were ninjas." A sneezing fit interrupted her giggles.

Reimu exaggerated a shrug. "Bandits, ninjas, and spiders, aren't they all the same?" The Hakurei shrine maiden ignored Sanae's withering glare.

"No, they're not" Mokou snapped, her old fire returning. The assistant shrine maiden winced at an unheard rebuke. She deflated, the regained her composure. "Don't mention a word of what I am about to say to Akyuu," she muttered.

"Of course," Sanae said.

Mokou drew in a deep breath. "I need you to find the Golden Room before the earth spiders do."

A murmur passed through Marisa and the shrine maidens. But Mr. Kirisame merely adjusted his glasses and folded his arms. "Why?" the shopkeeper asked.

"Please?" The phoenix maiden grew crimson and fidgeted with her hands.

Marisa bounced to her feet. "You've never cared about money before." The Rapunzel with gestured towards Mokou's floor-length locks, now darker than even Reimu's  _sumi_ -ink hair. "But then you have changed recently."

"It's not what you think," Mokou stammered. "I don't want the treasure. You can keep it all. Just keep the earth spiders away from me."

Sanae shared a knowing glance with Reimu. "Mokou, does this have to do with why you claimed refuge at the shrine?"

Mokou cast a moue. "You aren't supposed to ask."

"You aren't supposed to use us for revenge," Reimu snapped.

"That's what witches are for," Marisa said. She yelped as a sharp yank on her Rapunzel curls pulled her to her seat.

Mr. Kirisame crossed his arms again, "I'll ask again. Why should I help you?"

Mokou pleaded silently with the ceiling, then sighed. "Let me explain.

"During the Heian era, the earth spiders preyed on travelers like highwaymen, so the Fujiwara and Minamoto clans drove them underground, where law and force have kept them ever since. Or, that's how it was until Kaguya's wedding to Kosuzu's brother.

"As a gift to Yori, Akyuu and the Village elders declared Kaguya legally human." Mokou leveled her chilliest glare at Mr. Kirisame but the greying shopkeeper waited out the eternal shrine maiden. She relented and sipped her tea before continuing.

"Right after that, Kaguya tried to marry me off." Mokou held up a hand to cut off questions. "Don't ask me why. My history with Kaguya is turbulent at best, and as far as I'm concerned, it ended when she wed. Unfortunately, she doesn't believe me."

"So that's why the rabbits are sullying my shrine," Reimu said.

Mokou nodded. "What's important is that the earth spiders are tired of living for centuries underground, and they saw a way out. If Kaguya became human through marriage, so could they. And if they married into a clan with familial ties to the Emperor, no one could deny their humanity and keep them underground. It would be a personal affront to the Chrysanthemum Throne.

"So they sent an earth spider dandy to court me, and when I turned him down, he kidnapped me. If Meiling hadn't rescued me…" Mokou shivered at the recollection. "Now they're back, and if they get the Golden Room, they can just buy their way back to the surface. And when they do, I'm afraid—I don't want to be a monster's bride!"

"I'll help," Reimu and Sanae said in unison.

"I can't imagine anyone dragging you to the altar," Marisa said.

Mokou grimaced. "I swore not to use my fire while I am a shrine maiden."

Mr. Kirisame adjusted his glasses. "I still don't see how this concerns me."

"How can you let an earth spider trap Mokou at the altar?" Sanae demanded.

"She's not my daughter. I have no obligation to her." Mr. Kirisame remained unflustered as Mokou stared at him, poleaxed.

"How can you call yourself a man?"

"What does an unbroached child like you know of men?"

It was Sanae's turn to grow incandescent.

Mokou cut in, "Please. You're the only one who knows where the Golden Room might be. The plan won't work without you."

"This has been your dream since Mother died," Marisa added. She noticed the malevolent gleam in Reimu's eye and flashed a spell card at the trigger-happy shrine maiden.

"Every time I've encountered those spiders, I've come away worse off. Now it is time to tend to my shop before I lose that too," Mr. Kirisame said.

Mokou closed her mouth and her eyes, listening to her unseen voice. "Would 25  _ryo_  change your mind?"

Marisa whistled. That was easily a million yen, and enough to run the entire chain of Kirisame Boutiques for three months. "Since when do you have that kind of money?"

"Mokou of the Fujiwara clan does not, but my grandfather is the divine leader of the five  _sekke_  Fujiwara branch clans. He will provide." Mokou held out her hand and a pile of silver  _reals_  filled her palm. The Spanish coins trickled into Mr. Kirisame's hands. "Consider this a token of the Fujiwara clan's goodwill. The rest will be delivered to your boutique."

"Looks like I'm all in," the greying shopkeeper said.

"So, since that's settled, how do we get on the mountain to find the Golden Room?" Marisa said. "The  _tengu_  banned Daddy and I from their grounds, and they're watching for me."

"I'll lead you," a woman's tinny soprano said.

Marisa searched for the source of the voice and gasped. From a gossamer thread on the ceiling dangled the upside-down glass-globed figure of the Moon Maid!


	13. The Maple Way

As the Moon Maid dangled from the Hakurei shrine office's ceiling, Marisa leapt to her feet. The Rapunzel witch bounced off a wall and, amid sizzling sparks showering from the room's wards, tackled the glass-masked woman at her wasp waist. The gossamer strand tying the Moon Maid to the ceiling snapped as the two women swung through the office door and tumbled into the courtyard.

Marisa rolled to her feet. "I owe you for that light show in Moriya—"

The Moon Maid drove her shoulder into Marisa's gut. They crumpled into a heap where the serious business of grappling, gouging, and squirming began. A ring of rowdy rabbits surrounded the melee, cheering every near-fall.

Marisa grabbed for the glass moon mask, but the constant need to stop the Moon Maid's arm from snaking around her throat kept Marisa's attention on more pressing concerns. The masked vigilante's iron grasp slackened as she tried for another choke. Marisa wiggled free, flipped her attacker, and sat on the Moon Maid's back, yanking back on her foe's mirrorball mask.

The ring of bunny girls suddenly parted. A tasseled prayer rod lashed out like a switch, stinging Marisa's hands. The witch glared at the trio of shrine maidens looming over her. "Wait your turn."

As soon as Marisa's attention shifted to Reimu, Sanae, and Mokou, the Moon Maid vanished in a plume of smoke. Blinded, Marisa coughed, freezing when an iron claw seized her shoulder.

A pair of glowing black-and-white orbs appeared at Reimu's shoulder. The stylish shrine maiden snapped her fingers, and the orbs flew around Marisa and the Moon Maid in constricting circles. The Rapunzel witch remained still as the magical orbs grazed by, but the Moon Maid edged away from the sparking orbs.

"I knew it," the Hakurei shrine maiden crowed. "Reveal yourself,  _youkai_."

The Moon Maid flounced, but when a Yin Yang Orb creased the flowing edge of her duster, she finally raised her glass globe mask.

Mokou shrieked at the first shock of blonde hair and hid behind Sanae. For before the assembly of priestesses and rabbits—plus one out-of-place witch—stood the Pale Horse of the Earth Spiders:

Yamame Kurodani.

When the dust settled, and the screaming stopped, after a barricaded storeroom and a phalanx of dour rabbit  _youkai_  cloistered Mokou away from the threat of Yamame, the blonde spiderette stared down the actinic fury of Marisa's elemental furnace. The Pale Horse knelt, set her glass globe mask at her feet, and stood with her hands raised. "I am not here for Mokou."

Marisa kept an eye on the spiderette's sleeves. "Then you're here for me." Shadows fled from the lamp in her hand.

"I wanted to make a deal. Instead, you need spell card practice. How about best two out of three?" The impish spiderette winked at Marisa.

Reimu shook her prayer staff in Yamame's face. "Not so fast. This is still my shrine. I'm first." A handkerchief over Reimu's nose and mouth muffled her voice.

Clownpiece cheered as she squeezed out from under the shrine office's deck. Mr. Kirisame darted out and dragged the harlequin fairy into the safety of the office.

"Sanae said it was hers." Yamame backed away from Reimu's  _youkai_ -smiting staff.

"Wonder Girl can say what she wants. The rest of us don't have to listen." Reimu closed the gap between her and Yamame.

A crash of splintering wood pealed throughout the courtyard. Mokou's storeroom door swung wide, and Sanae tumbled out, bowling into a warren of bunny girls.

Marissa grumbled as Reimu walked in front of her shot at Yamame. The actinic glow dimmed as the Rapunzel witch circled around the spiderette. "Since when were you into cosplay?" The witch's eyes narrowed as a slip of paper passed between Yamame's fingers.

"Someone needed to put the fear of Grandmother Spider into  _youkai_  while the two of you were away. But everyone recognizes my cute face." Even with her hands raised, Yamame preened for a moment. "So I dug up the mask, the clingy dress, and a book deal. Now when I go  _youkai_ hunting, everyone thinks I'm advertising for the books. Though I do wish people would stop thinking I'm Komachi underneath the mask." The twinkle in the impish spiderette's eye belied her complaint.

"Stop boasting, little bug. The gods chose me themselves." Reimu stood toe-to-toe with the spiderette.

Marisa rolled her eyes and circled around Yamame once more. Of all the times for Reimu's ego to run unchecked…

"Not since you spurned your suitor." Yamame bared her fangs. "Silly girl, catch your man now, while you still can. Once Alice starts looking for kisses, there won't be any for the rest of us."

Reimu's knuckles grew white as she squeezed her prayer staff.

"Winter's coming, and the nights must be so cold for a Christmas cake." Yamame laughed as she used the traditional insult for a woman too old for suitors.

"I'm not Keine!" Reimu lashed out with her staff. Yamame ducked under the blow and snaked behind the shrine maiden. The spiderette drew short as the shadows in the courtyard suddenly vanished.

"Are you trying to get squashed on purpose?" Marisa said. Her elemental furnace sang with magical energy.

"The bunny girls promised me a fight." The Pale Horse of Gensokyo stood firm and locked eyes with the Rapunzel witch. "I'd hoped for a bout against my cousins, but the two of you will do."

Marisa glanced out of the corner of her eye to where Sanae still tried to untangle herself from the warren of bunny girls. "None of the rabbits look happy to see you."

The blonde spiderette shrugged. "They asked for the Moon Maid, not Yamame Kurodani." Holy tassels whipped over her head.

"I can't imagine why no one wants to be near a plague rat like you." Reimu whirled like a dervish as she struck in vain at Yamame.

"Wait until you meet Kuroko. She's unmistakable. Black hair, black dress, black temper…" Yamame met Marisa's gaze and searched her eyes. The glow in Marisa's elemental furnace wavered. "Ah, so you have met her."

"Why shouldn't I drop a mountain on you like I did your cousins?" Marisa asked. Just one Master Spark would wipe that cloying simper from the spiderette's face.

"One, guess who crawled free of that rubble. Two, that stunt got you banished from Youkai Mountain. Three, you need me to slip you past the  _tengu_  checkpoints." Yamame counted each point on her fingers. "And, four, you two are mountain girls. Don't you know a feud when you see one?"

"There hasn't been a feud in Gensokyo since I drafted the spell card rules." Reimu puffed out her chest. "I made sure of that."

"Did you forget to tell Mokou and Kaguya?" Yamame snickered. She sidestepped out of the path of a blow that never came.

Reimu walked toward the storeroom. "I've had my fun. Marisa, she's all yours."

"Hold still." Marisa closed an eye as she aimed her elemental furnace at the laces of Yamame's corseted dress.

"Wait!" Yamame threw up her hands and backed away from the black witch. "Here's the deal. You want the Golden Room, I want to squash my cousins. You know where to find them, I can take you there."

Reimu turned around. "What's in it for me?"

"Let me go and you can smite more spiders."

A wicked gleam filled Reimu's eyes. "Okay."

The glow faded from the elemental furnace. Marisa dropped the magical lamp into the skirt of her apron and blew on her angry red fingers.

Yamame lowered her hands and massaged her shoulder. A crumpled spell card fell out of her duster's sleeve. "So, where are we going?"

Slowly, the courtyard filled one more with the chatter of bunny girls. To Marisa's bristling annoyance, Clownpiece led her father out of the office sanctuary.

"See, I told you I'd keep you safe," the little hell fairy chirped.

But before the witch could protest, Sanae shuffled into the courtyard, prodded along by Seiran and Ringo. The scarlet Wonder Girl winced as she caught the tangerine rabbit's elbow between her ribs. "Mokou's beside herself, so I'm afraid I have some bad news…"

* * *

As Marisa followed Yamame through the towering maples of the Forest of Magic, she glanced over her shoulder. Behind her, flashes of Youkai Mountain peeked through the lush vermillion canopy. "Are you sure we're going the right way?"

Ahead of the Rapunzel witch, Yamame squirmed her way up a ribbon trail between woody copses of witch-hazel. "As long as Youkai Mountain is behind us."

Marisa waited as the wall of spindly yellow flowers shuddered. "But Daddy said that the Golden Room is on the other side of Youkai Mountain, near Mount Io." The Rapunzel witch pointed towards the mountain range. "Which is that way."

"So are the guards." Yamame poked her head out of the brush. "Try not to enrage an whole mountain of  _youkai_  next time."

"Blame Patchouli. I do." Marisa pushed her way through the witch-hazel thicket. She winced as the springy boughs whipped against her arms and legs.

A sudden jolt shoved Marisa free from the thicket. The Rapunzel witch scrambled away as branches snapped and fell behind her.

Reimu crashed through the witch-hazel. A cloud settled upon the veiled Shrine Maiden of Paradise as dark as her  _sumi_ -ink hair. "…how dare Sanae kick me out of my own shrine? The Wonder Girl better not be chatting up Lord Kamatari while I'm gone…"

Marisa let her pass by in silence. The wise witch knew when a stray word would turn into a lightning rod. The same, however, would never be said of a fairy.

Clownpiece scampered through the hole Reimu flattened into the brush, pulling Mr. Kirisame along by his hand. Marisa's broom hovered behind them, still laden with rucksacks.

"So Shizuha paints all these leaves red?" The petite hell fairy stared into the maple canopy with wide-eyed wonder. "Wouldn't that take forever?"

"Miss Aki does have a year to get ready." Mr. Kirisame brushed aside a high branch from his face. He noticed his daughter's scowl. "Clownpiece, why don't you see what Yamame is doing?"

The harlequin fairy chased after the retreating spiderette. But when Clownpiece passed Marisa, she stuck her tongue out at the Rapunzel witch.

Marisa whirled around to shout at the little hellion. She froze as a heavy hand fell on her shoulder.

"Stay with me for a moment." Mr. Kirisame squeezed Marisa's shoulder before guiding her broom next to her. He flipped open a rucksack flap. "I thought you outgrew these?"

Marisa glowed scarlet as Alice's doll stared back at her. "It's for you, not me." She brushed the flap back over the doll. "She's a good luck charm for  _danmaku_ …"

Left unspoken were Marisa's worries. Few men found the patience or desire to learn the graceful swirls of  _danmaku_. But an octet of trigger-happy spiderettes waited on the mountain for Marisa and her father, and the  _danmaku_  ace could not be everywhere at once.

A single  _danmaku_  pellet whistled through the vermillion canopy and burst over the Kirisames' heads.

"This is a race." Yamame stood by a game trail that was little more than a crease in a waxy spindle tree hedge and planted a hand on her hip. "Stay close. We can't afford for you to get lost."

The Pale Horse gave them plenty of chances to lose their way as she led the party through a winding maze of trails underneath the maples, always choosing the scantest paths through the thickest copses of flowery witch-hazel and evergreen spindle trees.

After an hour of pushing through walls of scraping branches, the red maple leaves blotted out the overhead sun. Yamame brought the group to a halt. While Mr. Kirisame unraveled Clownpiece from the twisting gyre of briars and pumpkin vines, Marisa stuffed a green  _kabocha_ pumpkin into a rucksack.

"Is this poisonous?" Reimu asked.

Marisa turned around, only to find a small black berry pressed to her lips and then into her mouth. Wide-eyed, the witch tried to spit, but Reimu clamped her hand over Marisa's mouth. The magical girl swallowed the tart berry and gasped, all under the unblinking eye of the veiled shrine maiden.

Marisa coughed and tore away Reimu's hand. "I could have just told you."

"But you lie." Reimu tugged on Marisa's cheeks. "Do you feel faint? Are your lips tingling?"

For a moment, memories of Eirin's apothecary examinations flooded Marisa's mind. "It'll take more than a mere berry to make me sick." She rinsed her mouth out with a swig from her canteen.

"That's not what Alice says." Reimu folded the ends of a handkerchief over a small pile of berries. "Oh, and I'm to keep you away from any mushrooms we find. This is the Forest of Magic after all."

Marisa sprayed water over the litter of leaves at her feet. "I'll teach that doll to mind her own business."

"Not now. Kuroko has a full day's start on us." Yamame stormed over and planted her hands on her hips. "We need to get moving, but that idiot fairy's still stuck."

"Oh, is that all?" Reimu replied.

"And take that veil off. I have full control over my power."

The shrine maiden waved away Yamame's complaint as she walked towards the briar. To Marisa's annoyance and growing jealousy, the thorns parted from Reimu as she reached for Clownpiece. The harlequin fairy fell out of the briar and into Mr. Kirisame's arms.

Yamame whistled. "Nice trick."

"Don't encourage her," Marisa said. "The last thing we need is for you to stoke Reimu's pride."

"It beats her moping everywhere." Yamame waved everyone towards a dense hedge of brambles.

"Don't be so sure," Marisa said,  _sotto voce_.

The coy spiderette led her party through denser thickets along paths no wider than ant trails. While the humans cut through the copses of thorny bushes, Clownpiece flittered over the brambles. Streams of juice coursed down her bulging cheeks as the harlequin fairy gleaned blackberries from among the thorns.

Thanks to Yamame's insistence that Reimu blaze the trail, they moved quickly through the tangled underbrush. Thorns refused to poke the Wonderful Shrine Maiden of Paradise, and vines parted before her, lest they snare her feet. And as along as Marisa and the others stayed close enough to Reimu, they could run through the brambles before the thorns grew back. Overhead, the brilliant red canopy faded to gold as chestnut and plum trees replaced the maples of the forest.

Finally, they left the brambles and entered a manicured garden beneath a canopy of golden chestnut trees. Pear, plum, and apricot trees flourished in the shade. Sweet potatoes, beans, and late-season radishes filled the underbrush. Scattered clumps of wild rice and farro dotted the forest.

By silent agreement, the humans filled their bags. Mr. Kirisame and Clownpiece gathered peaches, Reimu scooped up chestnuts from the forest floor, and Marisa pulled sweet potatoes out of the black earth. Somewhere in the commotion, Yamame disappeared behind a fallen trunk.

Marisa pursed her lips as she shook the dirt from a clump of purple sweet potatoes. She counted on the blessings of the Forest of Magic to feed the expedition, but the sheer bounty of foodstuffs found along the way was beyond the wildest blessings of gods like Lord Kamatari or the Wonder Girl. Even the weedy onions and clover were edible. Carefully managed, this section of the forest could feed the entire Kirisame clan year round, no matter how hungry her brothers got.

The Rapunzel witch wiped the dust from her hands. "Is this a farm?"

"More than that," Yamame's voice boomed from behind the trees, "it's a trap."


	14. The Lair of the Spider Woman

"It's a trap." Yamame's declaration shook the food forest's golden canopy.

Marisa abandoned her harvest and raced across the fields of sweet potatoes and the rivulets between the chestnut trees. She reached the fallen log at the center of the food forest and vaulted over it into a rill filled with leaf litter. Spell cards blossomed from her hands.

Reimu dropped next to Marisa, swinging her prayer rod. Two black and white orbs quivered in the air behind her. Both young women eyed every nook of the surrounding woods, vigilant for signs of ambush.

Only meters away, Yamame knelt with her back turned by an open sinkhole and poked the lip with a twig. At her feet lay the mirrorball mask of her alter ego, the Moon Maid.

Marisa trained her wand on Yamame's back as she closed the distance to the spiderette. Reimu raised her prayer staff high overhead, her eyes aglow with the thrill of the smite.

Yamame raised her hand. Marisa and Reimu froze in their tracks. "Aren't you going to challenge me first?" the infectious spiderette asked.

"No fair, you all can't play without me!" Clownpiece shouted. The hell fairy stood atop the fallen tree, fussing with an unlit torch. Reimu glanced over her shoulder, then shielded her eyes from the fairy's hell torch.

"Put that away," Marisa demanded. She pointed a glowing spell card at Clownpiece.

"You're no fun." Clownpiece flounced and stamped her feet, but the torch vanished beneath her cap and bells. She slipped on a patch of moss and fell into Mr. Kirisame's arms.

Marisa crumpled the spell cards in her hand. "Reimu, go get your fairy."

The veiled shrine maiden shook her head. "You're on your own."

Yamame darted between Marisa and Reimu. "Hold this." The impish spiderette cinched a silk coil around Marisa's waist and sprinted towards the sinkhole. With a jaunty flip, she dove inside.

"Wait, what-?" The silk snapped taunt, yanking Marisa off her feet. The petite magical girl clawed at the ground as the rope dragged her to the lip of the sinkhole. Reimu lunged for Marisa's hands. As soon as she got a firm hold on the petite witch's arms, the veiled shrine maiden dug in her heels.

When the sliding stopped, Marisa freed her belt knife and sawed at the cord around her waist. "Are you trying to start a fight?" the magical girl bellowed.

"Yes." Mr. Kirisame set Clownpiece on her feet and then severed the quivering rope with his own knife. "She's trying to keep you from asking questions."

Yamame's blonde head popped out of the sinkhole. "Is it that obvious?"

"I do have a daughter. Perhaps you've met her?"

Marisa glowered at her father while she wiped clean her apron, turning her head whenever he glanced her way. Fortunately, another target for the witch's ire waited. "Hey, Reimu, doesn't Yamame look like an incident to you?"

The veiled shrine maiden retrieved her prayer staff from the forest floor. "Sure does." She strode towards the sinkhole with Marisa on her heels.

With a Cheshire cat grin, Yamame lowered herself into the sinkhole's shadows. An octet of red orbs glowed in the darkness. "Step into my parlor."

"Stop," Mr. Kirisame ordered. Marisa and Reimu froze in their steps, and the red eyes faded away.

"This is women's business, Daddy," Marisa snapped.

"When Lord Fujiwara's priestess hired me, it became mine. And until we find the Golden Room, this business is over."

"I didn't hire you," Reimu muttered. But her prayer staff and orbs vanished. "Marisa is right, this forest isn't natural. There's a spider at the heart of this web."

Yamame popped out of the sinkhole. "The rabbits hired me to find the Golden Room, not to spill family secrets." The spiderette's petulance was only matched by Marisa's. She quailed, not from the daggers shot from Reimu's eyes, but from the shopkeeper's silent disapproval. "It's better if I showed you."

* * *

 

Marisa dropped from a web ladder draped between corrugated sinkhole walls and landed on a tiled floor of a wind-carved slot canyon. A thin layer of sand obscured an eight-legged mosaic underneath her boots. The Rapunzel with hurled a handful of neon  _danmaku_  shot into a nearby tunnel's mouth. As soon as the pastel glow faded, she shouted skyward, "It's safe."

"I told you so." Yamame slid head first down the web.

"We don't trust you." Reimu floated to the floor. She tossed the Moon Maid's mirrorball mask at Yamame.

"For a shrine maiden, you're a poor judge of character." Yamame tied a strand of silk to her glass globe mask and wore it behind her shoulders like a hood. "For example, why does Sanae stick so close to your divine suitor?"

A shriek from above drowned out Reimu's indignant reply. Clownpiece tumbled into the sinkhole hugging a bulging rucksack. The harlequin fairy's butterfly wings beat furiously, slowing her fall until she hovered mere decimeters from the mosaic floor.

Mr. Kirisame lowered himself hand-over-hand down a silk rope, bearing a rucksack and Marisa's broom on his back. A tawny doll dangled on a strap at his waist. "Is this what you wanted to show us? A wind cave where there should be water?"

Yamame pressed an ear to the grooved stone wall. She rapped the rock with her knuckles, paused, and then slid along the wall only to start over. "Wait a moment. It'll help if you can see." The spiderette sank her fingers into a vertical fissure and pried. "You humans have such poor eyesight."

Marisa crept behind Yamame while the spiderette rummaged inside a fuse box hidden in the stones. "You're dancing around the issue."

"Of course I am. I don't want to get squashed for what my cousins are doing." Yamame dropped a trio of broken glass tubes and then slammed the box shut. "But if you decide to try, just promise you'll face me like a woman instead of shooting me in the back. Unlike last time."

"It depends on what you're hiding." Marisa glanced at the scarlet shrine maiden. "Or if you keep taunting Reimu."

While Reimu flashed too many teeth for a smile, Yamame clung to an anchor line and drew herself into the hub of the web.

"Where do you think you're going?" Marisa yelled through cupped hands. The coy spiderette ignored her.

Yamame skittered across the rim of the web. Metal shrieked overhead, punctuated by hissed cursing. A beam of sunlight lanced through the leaves and the webs, illuminating the underground chamber. "Ever wonder why outsiders haven't appeared in the Human Village since Princess Kaguya's wedding?"

"We were too busy celebrating a fairy tale wedding to notice." Mr. Kirisame loaded the rucksacks and Clownpiece atop Marisa's broom.

"Those few that made it past the border ended up in this forest garden, per Kuroko's design." Yamame ran along the rim of the web, flipping mirrors until eight beams pointed towards the tunnel's mouth. "Only three every left. Trust me; I know where Kuroko buries the bodies. And if she built this deathtrap on a bandit's meager hoard, imagine what she could do with a treasure room full of gold?

"Now you know why I fight my cousins. I have to step on Kuroko before you humans squash us all for what she’s doing." Yamame peeked out from behind a full-body mirror under the sinkhole's lip. "Am I going to get blasted when I come down?"

* * *

 

It took a half hour and a litany of oaths sworn before Grandmother Spider, the eight million gods, the Unnamed Name, and merciful Maria Kannon herself to coax Yamame from her web. By the end, Marisa wished she used a Master Spark instead. But the treasure hunters finally resumed their race, chasing the reflected light beam into the tunnel that led to the heart of Youkai Mountain.

Unlike the tunnels under Moriya hamlet, white mortar smoothed these walls. When Marisa closed her eyes and brushed her fingers across the walls, she swore that she was walking through a Village alleyway at night. Instinctively, the thieving witch searched for hidden traps. At least the floor was stone, and not the singing teak of a nightingale floor. "Why did we come here if your cousins built this tunnel?"

Yamame rushed ahead of the group to a dogleg and turned a pair of mirrors. "It's a gamble, but I'm betting that Kuroko's goons are too busy searching for the Golden Room to stand guard here."

Reimu strode ahead of the small procession, jabbing her prayer staff into every crevice along the way. "We should have taken our chances with Momiji's mutts."

As the light in the tunnel died, Marisa pinched her nose and exhaled. After her ears popped, she pulled a flashlight from her apron.

"They have our scent." Mr. Kirisame pulled Clownpiece out of the illuminating beam. "For once, I'm glad we're not walking through the front door."

Yamame stopped in the archway entrance to a midnight chamber. She swiveled an overhead mirror until the reflected beam disappeared into the room. "Wait here." The spiderette vanished within the inky atrium.

While Clownpiece and Marisa huddled over Mr. Kirisame as he mapped from memory the spider tunnels in his notebook, Reimu peered into the chamber. "There she is." The veiled shrine maiden pointed at a flickering firefly flame streaking across the chamber.

Marisa tracked Yamame's trail through the chamber by mirror gleams and metal squeals. But the gloom still filled the chamber, no matter how long she stared into the darkness.

"Can you turn your mirror to the right just a hair?" Yamame called out.

Reimu tapped the overhead mirror, and a beam of light stabbed into the underground vault, racing from mirror to mirror before shooting to the ceiling. A hidden prism spread the light into a warm glow that filled the chamber.

Clownpiece squealed in awe. And if Marisa's voice joined the hell fairy's, she was not alone. For hidden beneath the Forest of Magic lay a vaulted cathedral in the shape of a Maltese cross surrounded by an octagon. At each vertex, a stone archway gate led deeper into the underground. In the center of the vault's azure domed ceiling, light shone from an oculus like an underground sun. But below the pristine sky vault, midnight soot clawed up the alcoves and the walls.

"What happened here?" Reimu tiptoed across grimy tiles, leaving scarlet footprints in her wake.

"Mokou." Although Yamame murmured her reply, the answer thundered from the sky dome. The spiderette rappelled from the oculus and dropped next to Reimu. She fussed with a compass around her neck "And Hachitarou still wants to wed her. Madness runs deep in my cousin's side of the family."

"You didn't fall far enough from that tree," Marisa muttered. The Rapunzel witch wound her now soot-tipped hair into a loose bun and shoved it under her hat. Only then did she cross the cathedral's nave. "Hey, hell fairy, how long have you been playing with spiders?"

As she ran past Marisa, Clownpiece blew Marisa a raspberry.

Yamame stood at the center of the cathedral's crossing. Her finger wavered between the eastern and northeastern hallways. "Mr. Kirisame, could you please speak with us for a moment?"

The salt and pepper shopkeeper joined Yamame beneath the sunlit eye. He opened a notebook, and Yamame and Reimu huddled around him. He tapped a line of text and then pointed to the eastern gate. The impish spiderette shook her head and traced a second line of text. Mr. Kirisame frowned and flipped the page to a map of the Southern Yatsugatake Mountains.

After hip-checking Clownpiece, Marisa squeezed between Yamame and her father. The witch's eyes lit up as coins rattled in Reimu's hand.

"This is taking too long. I'm the best fortune teller in Gensokyo, why don't we let fate decide?" said the veiled shrine maiden.

"You just jilted a god." Yamame pushed away Reimu's hand. ‘Whatever Fortune is whispering in your ear isn’t good luck."

"Don't touch me, Plague Girl." Reimu recoiled from Yamame's hands. She opened a small flask and washed her hands. Marisa turned her nose at the waste of good  _sochu_  spirits.

"Stop being foolish," Mr. Kirisame commanded. "The eastern path is the quickest."

"Yes, but it runs through  _her_  country." The impish spiderette's visage soured as she drew a heart over her breast. "The northeast past doesn't."

Mr. Kirisame flashed a quizzical glance at his daughter.

"Relax, I'll take care of any  _danmaku_. I wrote the book on it." Marisa slapped Reimu's back. "And if things get crazy, remember, we brought a decoy."

* * *

 

Yamame relented, but remained sullen as she led the party away from the spiders' cathedral. The once impish spiderette's gloom spread to everyone, even Clownpiece, well before a lightning-bolt verdigris vein divided bleached-bone spider masonry from the gravestone sinter stalagmites drooping in the hot wash from hidden springs.

As Marisa pushed into the wall of hot swampy air, her black dress turned into a sodden, sticky, and shapeless sack of heavy cloth. Even ever-blessed Reimu glistened with the sheen of sweat. With each breath, Marisa gulped needles. Yellow vapors seeped from burbling mud while steam billowed from ink-splat pools of azure and pink, adding to the prickling swelter.

Marisa draped a wet handkerchief across her face and tied it in place. For a few precious moments, she found relief from the scraping sulfur that filled her lungs, enough to press deeper into the cavern that held the Old Hell.

The Old Hell still lived up to its name, years after the Judges of Hell evicted its souls. Officially, that is. Whatever horrors still thrived alongside _oni_  revelers and  _satori_  rebels in the underground hellscape remained hidden by the hot springs vapors, as did the Palace of the Earth Spirits. Her father insisted that the Golden Room with its unseen treasures lay on the opposite side of the underground oven. The Rapunzel witch wished that she listened to Yamame instead.

The noxious fumes gurgling out of hidden springs choked out everything except for the shuffling of boots against sand, the jangling of Clownpiece's bells, and the chattering of the hell fairy's teeth Reimu pressed protective charms against every column she passed, but Clownpiece still trembled as she cast fearful glances in all directions.

After Yamame stopped near an organ-pipe stalagmite near a silvery pool. A haunting whisper scraped through the silence. "… _behind you_ …"

Clownpiece shrieked and shot into the air. The trembling fairy fled through the tunnel, passed Reimu, and sheltered in Mr. Kirisame's shadow.

The familiar gorge rose in Marisa's throat. She wanted nothing more than to pry the hellion from her father's legs. But she caught the ghost of laughter echoing from the stalagmites. The Rapunzel witch shoved her black hat into Reimu's arms. "Hold this for a moment."

Marisa knelt and placed Clownpiece's harlequin bells on her head. Then she brushed her floor-length blonde tresses over any trace of her black dress.

"It's just an evil spirit." Reimu smirked as she set the witch's hat on Clownpiece's amber curls. The magical girl rolled her eyes and shooed everyone forward.

Once again, the treasure hunters trudged behind Yamame through vapor-choked stone columns. Marisa tarried a few steps behind, straining her ears as she hopped from foot to foot like an anxious but otherwise playful fairy. She cursed the jangling bells around her head as the minutes rolled by. Then, just as Marisa tired of the deception:

_"Hello, little fairy…"_

Marisa made no outward sign that she heard the creepy whisper. Her hand vanished inside an apron pocket as she lagged further behind.

"… _I'm right behind you!_ "

Marisa bit her lips and watched the ground. Soon, a shadow crept beneath the magical girl.

_"Hello?"_

"I heard you the first time." Marisa whirled around and shone a flashlight into a pair of luminous green eyes.

With her mouth agape, a silvery _satori_  in green and gold trembled mere decimeters from Marisa. The  _satori_  screamed, and a whirlwind curtain of rose petals shrouded her from view. "I'm sorry," Koishi wailed as she fled from the black witch. The silvery  _satori_  splashed across a fluorescing pool before vanishing into the yellow mist.

"What did you do to our Koishi?" trumpeted a choir of furies.

Lightning split the firmament overhead, revealing a circular amphitheater crowning the vault of the Old Hell. In each chair of the seven concentric rings sat a hell raven matron in white raiment. To the north burned a lidless citrine eye watching over an embroidered divan.

Utsuho Reiuji, the divine sun crow, appeared in a pillar of flame.


	15. The Unkindness of Ravens

Overhead, in the newly revealed stadium that now crowned the underground Old Hell, three rings of  _youkai_  ravenesses loomed like vultures, quivering as they waited for an answer from Marisa and her treasure hunters.

Beneath the lidless eye mounted above the stadium's seat of honor, Utsuho rocked forward on her divan and fixed Marisa in a basilisk stare. The divine sun crow repeated the flock's demand. "What did you do to Koishi?"

The ravenesses roosting nearest to the sun corw cawed out the harsh demand. The chorus spread through the stadium until all three choirs chanted the refrain. A sulfurous miasma rose with the cacophonous crescendo, welling up from nearby mineral water pools.

Marisa spun around, finding herself abandoned by all but her father. Clownpiece shuddered behind a steam-slick stalagmite at the edge of an emerald and gold pool. Yamame vanished with a twirl of her duster, leaving behind only the high mocking laughter of the Moon Maid.

Bemused, Reimu edged away from the schoolgirl witch. As a lull settled in the corvine choirs' accusations, she murmured, "So, tell me, what  _did_  you do to Koishi?"

Marisa waved away the shrine maiden. "Don't even start, I did nothing wrong." The magical thief froze as Utsuho leapt to her feet, followed by her raven flock.

A sudden blaze across the red cabochon jewel on the sun crow's breast drew all eyes to Utsuho. She stabbed a finger at Marisa. "So you admit it." Then her finger drifted towards Reimu. "And you did not stop her."

"Don't drag me into Marisa's messes," Reimu protested, but the uproar from the ravenesses drowned out all but Clownpiece's shrieks.

Mr. Kirisame knelt and cupped a hand to Marisa's ear. "Choose your next words carefully. Have you heard of the Parliament of Rooks?" he shouted.

Marisa turned and shouted back into his ear, "No!" Save for  _tengu_ and the sun crow, the schoolgirl witch did not meet many corvids. Crows and ravens and other black birds were not cuddly enough for a proper cute witch.

Her father hollered back, "Whenever a flock of rooks stands in judgment, they encircle the accused for a debate. If the accused loses, the rooks then peck it to death."

Marisa glanced up at the twisted faces screeching at her. "You can't have a debate if no one's listening." Her fingers slipped into her apron pocket and traced the trigrams etched into her elemental reactor.

Mr. Kirisame squeezed his daughter's shoulder and stood. His lips moved as he bowed his head. Prayers, in Hell? Marisa just hoped it was not too late.

Reimu cupped her hands to her mouth. "Hey. Hey. HEY!" She shrieked the last as long as her lungs had breath. The shrill siren cut through the cawing chorus, and the choirs fell silent. "There's been a misunderstanding," Reimu rasped, massaging her throat.

"Yes, Koishi kissed me first," Marisa said.

In that moment, the only sounds throughout Old Hell were the drips of water from stalactites and Mr. Kirisame's murmured sutras.

The unblinking gaze of the citrine eye fell upon Marisa, along with those of the raveness choirs. The petite witch pulled her wide-brimmed hat over her eyes. "She thought I was a boy."

A noxious silence lingered while emotions marched single-file across Utsuho's face. First, confusion…

"This doesn't look good. Maybe I should reason with her." Reimu held up her open hands so that all could see.

…then recognition…

Marisa took a firm hold on her elemental furnace. "Don't bother, they're Koishi's pets, and I just insulted their owner."

…then disgust.

By Clownpiece, the pool roiled and belched sulfur. The hell fair scooted away from the green and gold water.

Mr. Kirisame switched from Buddhist sutras to Taoist invocations.

…and finally fury.

"How dare you!" the sun crow erupted. Once again, the choirs took up Utsuho's refrain, but this time a descant of "What did you do to our Koishi?" wove around the angry chant. The raven matrons hopped to the edge of the amphitheater rings and flourished their wings.

Reimu and Marisa stood back to back, their hands filled with spell cards. "Feeling frisky?" Marisa asked.

"Satori won't forgive us for this," Reimu said. Despite her warning, a predatory smile lit up the shrine maiden's face. "Try to keep up, slowpoke."

Swept up in the frenzy of their chant, the lowest circle of ravenesses threw themselves over the ledge. Still in human form, the bird  _youkai's_  wing caught the air, letting them spiral to the floor like falling leaves. When the ravenesses landed, they whirled around and reformed the ring around Reimu, Marisa, and Mr. Kirisame.

One raveness splashed through the pool next to Clownpiece's hiding spot. The harlequin fairy shrieked and thrust out her torch, which ignited in a spray of silver sparks.

Marisa felt the sudden surge of  _power_  punch through the Old Hell like a thunderclap. "Cover your eyes!"

The Parliament of Rooks boiled over into a swirling storm of down feathers, talons, beaks, and teeth. Marisa grazed past the first few ravens, then grimaced as one checked her with a shoulder. Unlike  _danmaku_ , the ravens grazed back. Hands clutched at her witch's hat, claws tore at her dress, and beaks stabbed at her bare skin. What few  _danmaku_  sprays Marisa snapped off vanished in the black-feathered maelstrom. So, gritting her teeth, Marisa braced herself against the buffet and shock of a hundred black wings.

Suddenly, a geyser fountained out of the pool by Clownpiece. The roiling flock rippled away from the springwater spray. For a moment, the barrage against Marisa lifted, and she flew into the gap left by the ravens, towards the dying geyser. The witch called over her shoulder, "Can you do that again?"

"I was lucky to do it once." Mr. Kirisame chased after his daughter. Reimu floated in the air after him.

As the last drops fell, the raven flock regrouped and swooped for the humans, the charge led by Utsuho herself.

A loud whistle cut through the din.

The ravenesses' charge folded in on itself as the flock wheeled towards a palatial mansion in the distance. The cloud of  _youkai_  settled in a field before the walled city around the mansion, on either side of the road leading out of the city. Overhead, the amphitheater vault blinked shut.

After splashing through the now cloudy spring, Marisa reached Clownpiece. Shielding her eyes, the petite which grabbed the harlequin fairy's wrist, spun her around, and quenched the torch in the muddy water. "Think, next time."

Clownpiece's lip quivered, and she pulled out of Marisa's grasp and ran towards Mr. Kirisame. While the graying shopkeeper consoled the star-spangled fairy, Marisa bit her lip and seethed. She glanced around for a target for her frustrations. "Where's Yamame?" the prodigal witch snapped.

"Wherever she is, she's the smart one. Remind me to squash her when we see her next. She should have taken us with her." Reimu beat down feather fluff from her sleeves. She glanced out towards the city and groaned before throwing a handkerchief at Marisa's face. "Clean yourself up. Company's coming."

* * *

At the center of the Old Hell's underground cavern, a forgotten city sprawled around the Palace of the Earth Spirits. Within its white walls, this dense jigsaw of whitewashed houses stood abandoned yet still pristine, untouched by mold or rot. Just one city ward would swallow the Human Village without a trace.

A black gate opened in the city wall for a procession. It started with four figures and a leopard, but as the procession passed along the road, the beasts of the field and the  _youkai_  of the air filed in behind—including the two lines of the Parliament of Rooks.

Reimu paced around the spring pool. "They're taking their sweet time."

"I know you want to seal away all of Old Hell, but even you can't do it just in one ceremony." Marisa rubbed a damp cloth over her face. She glowered, the rolled the cloth into a tight rat's tail and cracked it at Clownpiece. "Get back, fairy."

The harlequin fairy leapt away from Mr. Kirisame's side. Her bell cap jangled as she flounced towards Marisa. "One, two, three, four, I declare a Fairy War—" Clownpiece squealed as Reimu yanked her into the air by her frilled collar.

"Save it for later." Reimu dangled the squirming harlequin fairy over a stone trough. The shrine maiden glowered at Marisa. "You should go easy on her. I can't imagine many fairies know what a father is."

Marisa's cheeks puffed as she glared back. "She can find her own. Mine's taken."

Mr. Kirisame coughed politely and pointed towards the procession. "So that's where Yamame went."

Marisa groaned as she recognized the head of the procession. "There's Satori. I was hoping not to run into her."

"Because of your lies?" Reimu snickered as she set Clownpiece down. The little fairy hid behind Mr. Kirisame's back. "You do know everyone can see through them, even the fairies."

Mr. Kirisame gathered the rucksacks and Marisa's broom with Clownpiece's help. "There's no point waiting. Let's go, girls." With the rucksack-laden boom in tow, the shopkeeper wound his way through the underground pools toward the Old Hell's road.

Marisa chased after her father. "I hope Satori's feeling chatty, for once," she grumbled.

The brimstone vapors faded as they left the clustered springs, replaced by a growing swelter that soaked Marisa's black dress. As they neared Satori's procession, Marisa hip-checked Clownpiece away from her father to keep him between her and Satori. That all-seeing bookworm needed to work for Marisa's secrets.

Satori drew near, attended by Rin Kaenbyou and a sinuous snow leopard. Koishi clung to her sister's back, hiding whenever Marisa peeked out her father's shadow. Behind them Yamame shuffled along in her impossibly high-cut dress, holding her mask and duster in a tied-off bundle. Two lines of  _youkai_  filed behind the earth spider, always shifting as the beasts jockeyed to stay closest to Satori. Utsuho remained the queen of her file, but her companion changed with each new step.

Satori held up her hand. The procession stopped, and the thin column spread into a semi-circle around her. The sleepy-eyed  _satori_  princess waited in silence, staring at the intruders with a bright third eye that hung like a pomander on her breast.

Mr. Kirisame bowed to the ruler of the Old Hell. Marisa also ducked low, dodging Satori's gaze.

Reimu, however, charged past the shopkeeper. "How many times have I warned you to keep a leash on your birdbrain?" Utsuho's feathers stood on end as the shrine maiden stared her down.

Satori tapped a finger to her lips, hushing all.

Reimu crossed her arms. "So it's the silent treatment today." She tapped her food as Satori examined her.

"Could you please tell us-" Mr. Kirisame began.

Satori shook her head and shifted her gaze to the shopkeeper.

"You know, it might be quicker if you talked to us," Reimu snapped.

"Nothing bad happened, Sis. Marisa just startled me." Koishi leaned out from behind Satori, gasped, and then ducked behind her sister's shadow. "Like right now."

Satori motioned for Mr. Kirisame to step to his side. Marisa sighed, dipped an exaggerated curtsy, and filled her mind's eye with  _danmaku_  pinwheels. No sense in making Satori's job easy. The prodigal witch snickered when, after a minute's focus on her, Satori's third eye watered.

The mousy ruler of Old Hell squinted, blinked, and then massaged her eye. "Follow me." Satori pivoted and walked towards the city's gate.

* * *

A thousand bone-white houses stood like a regiment of open graves, pressed against the narrow throughway that led to the palace cathedral at the heart of Old Hell. No glass filled the windows, nor wood, the open doorways. Only will-o'-wisp trails and brimstone winds passed through the empty houses.

In silence, Satori led her guests and followers through the claustrophobic ghost town. Her reticence spread through the  _youkai_ , the beasts, and the ravens. But while Clownpiece's teeth chattered and Reimu muttered wordless oaths, Marisa cased the largest houses with her eyes.

"Eyes front, young lady," Mr. Kirisame rumbled behind her.

The prodigal witch snickered and ran further ahead of her father. She jumped as a hand caught her arm.

Yamame whispered in Marisa's ear, "Satori knows everything." The blonde earth spider dragged the witch back towards Reimu and Mr. Kirisame. "I don't keep secrets from her."

"I can't imagine many of us do." Marisa shook free of Yamame's grip. "Thankfully, Satori's third eye only reads minds, not memories."

"I don't mean like that. Satori's my only ally against my cousin's schemes."

"You could have come to me," Reimu snapped.

"Where have you been since Kaguya's wedding? While Kuroko was spinning her webs?" Yamame laughed. "Like it matters. As soon as you have the slightest audience, you're ready to seal all of us  _youkai_  away. You can't blame me for looking out for myself."

Reimu cracked her knuckles. "We've got an audience right now."

Mr. Kirisame stepped in front of the shrine maiden. "What doesn't she know?"

Koishi suddenly appeared behind Yamame, her third eye squinting but open. The silvery  _satori_  clung to the spiderette's shoulders. "Marisa? I'm sorry I thought you were a boy."

Marisa clenched her eyes shut and counted hexes until her fury faded. For once, her lies failed her. "Don't mention it. Ever."

Reimu hid her smug laughter behind a flowing sleeve while Clownpiece choked back a tittering giggle. A wisp of a stray spirit streaked out of the nearest window and set the harlequin fairy's teeth chattering once again.

"Just go away." Marisa turned away and wiled her hands open.

Koishi's third eye closed and the silvery  _satori_  faded away. After she vanished, the lines of raven  _youkai_  took to the air, circled the city, and roosted in the buttresses of the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

Marisa's ire shifted to the newest gargoyles jeering at her from atop the mansion. She exhaled sharply. "How do you stand it down here?" she asked Yamame.

For once, the infectious spiderette's cheer faded. "Why do you think my people are so eager to leave?"

Marisa shrugged. The Fujiwara clan and their allies drove the earth spiders underground centuries ago. Hardly an unjust and unwarranted deed—if Akikonomu and Kuroko were anything to go by.

Rin appeared between the two girls and threw her arms around their shoulders. The catgirl redhead stooped, dragging Yamame until her head was level with Marisa's. "Satori-nyan wants you to keep up." She pointed to where Satori waited by a wrought-iron fence.

To Marisa's surprise, the lavender  _satori's_  nose was not buried in a tawdry paperback. The prodigal witch twisted out of Rin's hold. "Scat, cat."

Rin laughed and caught Marisa's wrist. "Hold on tight." The hellcat raced for Satori with Marisa and Yamame in tow. The petite witch clamped a hand over her hat as she scrambled to stay on her feet.

After a breathless dash across the cobblestones, Marisa found herself under Satori's impassive third eye, gulping down air. The lavender  _satori_  turned to Rin and pointed back towards Mr. Kirisame and Reimu.

The hellcat kicked up her heels and bounded down the road. Moments later, Rin pushed Mr. Kirisame, Reimu, and one petrified hell fairy in line with the schoolgirl witch.

Satori greeted their arrival with the same silence from before. The Ruler of Old Hell walked the fence, fussing with an iron key ring. A skeleton key inlaid with bone unlocked the way into the courtyard of the Palace of the Earth Spirits.

"You will have my help." Satori swung the iron fence open. The hinges creaked and groaned like damned souls. "But you may have cause to regret it."


End file.
